Canadian ostrich saga that captivated RFK Jr ends as birds culled

The arrival of men in hazmat suits has spelled the end for more than 300 ostriches in British Columbia.

Their fate has been the subject of a months-long legal battle in Canada that has attracted an unlikely group of supporters, including a US grocery billionaire, Canadian anti-Covid mandate activists and US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, a famous doctor and member of the Trump administration, even offered to adopt the birds, but to no avail.

Thursday evening, gunshots rang out from the hay bale enclosure where the birds were kept. Katie Pasitney, whose family owns the farm, told the BBC on Friday morning that the ostriches had been killed overnight.

Food inspection officials have since confirmed that the slaughter took place.

“Shame on you, Canada,” Pasitney said earlier in a tearful video posted to his Facebook page.

“The world is watching.”

The ostrich cull was ordered late last year after two of them tested positive for avian influenza, or H5N1, following an outbreak that left 69 dead.

The farm’s owners, who raised ostriches for slaughter but used them for medical research in recent years, had exhausted all legal options to block the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s (CFIA) order, with the battle stretching all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The top court dismissed the case Thursday morning, allowing the elimination to continue. Lower courts sided with federal officials, finding that they were acting reasonably within their mandate to protect public health.

Dozens of people gathered Thursday afternoon at Universal Ostrich Farms to protest the impending execution of the ostriches. “You sick parasites will burn in hell,” one of them shouted.

The birds have become an unlikely political symbol, with many saying the Canadian government overstepped its authority in ordering their cull.

This led to rising tensions in the town of Edgewood, British Columbia, where the farm is located. Local businesses told media they had to call the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after clashes with bird supporters, who had set up camp on the farm.

Slaughters like this are often carried out without fanfare, as part of the broad mandate that Canadian food inspection officials have to curb the spread of harmful viruses. But the case stood out for the attention it received at home and abroad, particularly from members of the Trump administration, such as Kennedy and Dr. Oz, who is charged with overseeing Medicaid and Medicare in the United States.

Although neither has jurisdiction in Canada, both have spoken out in an attempt to save the birds.

In contrast, the response from senior Canadian officials, including Prime Minister Mark Carney and other federal leaders, has been largely muted.

The farm’s most ardent defender south of the border is New York billionaire and Republican megadonor John Catsimatidis, a self-described animal lover who called Thursday for a “thorough investigation” into the saga. He suggested that the U.S. Department of Justice launch the investigation if Canada refuses.

Mr. Catsimatidis’ involvement dates back to early May, when Ms. Pasitney appeared on a radio show he hosted to plead their case.

“The Canadian government wants our farm destroyed after two tests,” she told him, “even though it is perfectly healthy and doing incredibly well.”

Moved by the plight of the birds, the billionaire called on figures from the Trump administration to support this cause.

Later in May, Kennedy met with Canadian officials to try to stop the slaughter.

He launched a collaboration on a long-term study of ostriches to see if they had developed immunity to avian flu. “It is very useful to study this population,” Kennedy later wrote in a letter to Canadian officials, instead of “indiscriminate” culling of the herd.

Dr. Oz offered to move the ostriches to his Florida estate, but the farm owners refused. “We want to keep this in Canada,” Ms. Pasitney told the CBC at the time.

But just days after the meeting with Kennedy, officials told the Canadian Press they would continue to carry out “humane depopulation” of the herd.

In July, Kennedy, Dr Oz and Mr Catsimatidis took the issue to the highest level, begging Prime Minister Carney to make a “joint public statement” in support of the farm with them.

Carney has not spoken publicly about the matter.

His Justice Minister, Sean Fraser, however, spoke on Thursday, telling journalists that he was “happy to see” the rejection of the case by the highest court.

“It is important that the Minister of Agriculture and the CFIA are able to protect the health of the general Canadian public and the food we eat,” Fraser said.

Kennedy and Dr. Oz – supporters of the Make America Healthy Again movement – and Mr. Catsimatidis may seem unlikely allies of a small ostrich farm in rural British Columbia. But their causes overlap.

The farm’s owners have frequently accused Canadian authorities of overstepping their rights. They attracted support from Canadian anti-Covid activists like Tamara Lich, who led the “Freedom Convoy” that occupied Ottawa at the height of the pandemic and raised money for bird defense.

Meanwhile, Kennedy criticized government-imposed public health measures, such as vaccine requirements.

He expressed interest in using birds to study natural immunity to avian flu, rather than following the CFIA’s stamping-out protocols, which align with those of the World Health Organization, a United Nations agency that has been criticized by both Kennedy and President Donald Trump.

“It’s kind of crazy that members of the U.S. cabinet are releasing public comments on this,” said Jeremy Snyder, a professor and public health expert at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

“But it’s not surprising,” he said, adding that the controversy was the perfect attraction for those who oppose government excesses, which include vaccine skeptics who believe “big pharma and big government are trying to take control of our lives.”

The CFIA has defended its policies in several statements, writing that the goal is to protect public and animal health, as well as Canada’s billion-dollar poultry industry.

British Columbia Conservative MP Scott Anderson a supporter of the farm, criticized what he called a “poorly executed operation.”

“This operation cost Canadians millions of dollars and hundreds of RCMP overtime hours, and transformed the once peaceful town of Edgewood into something that resembles a sci-fi movie set featuring Area 51,” Anderson said.