Canadian ostrich saga that captivated RFK Jr ends as birds culled

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

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

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

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

Food inspection officials have since confirmed that the cull was carried out.

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

“The world is watching.”

The ostriches were ordered to be culled late last year after two had tested positive for the avian flu, or H5N1, following an outbreak that killed 69.

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

The top court dismissed the case on Thursday morning, effectively allowing the cull to go ahead. Lower courts had sided with federal officials, ruling they are acting reasonably within their mandate to protect public health.

Dozens had gathered at Universal Ostrich Farms on Thursday afternoon to protest the ostriches’ imminent execution. “You sick parasites, you will burn in hell,” one of them yelled.

The birds have become an unlikely political symbol, with many arguing the Canadian government was overreaching its authority by ordering the cull.

It has led to rising tensions in the town of Edgewood, British Columbia, where the farm is located. Local businesses told media they had to get the Royal Canadian Mounted Police involved after run-ins with the birds’ supporters, who had setup camp on the farm.

Culls like this are often conducted without fanfare, part of a broad mandate Canadian food inspection officials have to curb the spread of harmful viruses. But this case has stood out for the amount of attention it has drawn at home and abroad, particularly from members of the Trump administration, like Kennedy and Dr Oz, who is in charge of overseeing Medicaid and Medicare in the US.

Although neither have jurisdiction in Canada, both have spoken out to try and save the birds.

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

The farm’s loudest advocate south of the border is New York City billionaire and Republican megadonor John Catsimatidis, a self-described animal lover who on Thursday called for a “thorough investigation” into the saga. He suggested that the US Department of Justice should take up the probe if Canada refuses.

Mr Catsimatidis’ involvement dates back to early May, when Ms Pasitney called into a radio show hosted by him to plead their case.

“The Canadian government wants our farm killed off of two tests,” she told him, “even though they are fully healthy and doing amazingly well.”

Moved by the birds’ plight, the billionaire enlisted figures in the Trump administration to take up the cause.

Later that May, Kennedy met with Canadian officials to try to stop the cull.

He pitched a collaboration on a long-term study of the ostriches to see if they had developed immunity to the avian flu. “There is significant value in studying this population,” Kennedy later wrote in a letter to Canadian officials, instead of the “indiscriminate” killing of the flock.

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

But just a few days after the meeting with Kennedy, officials told the Canadian Press they would still go ahead with the “humane depopulation” of the flock.

In July, Kennedy, Dr Oz and Mr Catsimatidis took the matter to the very top, pleading with Prime Minister Carney to make a “joint public statement” in support of the farm with them.

Carney has not spoken publicly about the issue.

His justice minister Sean Fraser did speak on Thursday, however, telling reporters that he is “pleased to see” the top court’s dismissal of the case.

“It’s important that the minister of agriculture and CFIA are able to protect the health of the general Canadian public and the food we consume,” Fraser said.

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

The farm’s owners have frequently accused Canadian officials of overstepping their rights. They have attracted the support of Canadian anti-Covid mandate activists like Tamara Lich, who led the “Freedom Convoy” that occupied Ottawa during the height of the pandemic, and fundraised for the birds’ defence.

Meanwhile, Kennedy has criticised government-mandated public health measures, like vaccine requirements.

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

“It is a bit wild that US cabinet members are putting out public comments about it,” 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 has been the ideal draw for those advocating against government overreach, which include vaccine sceptics who believe that “big pharma and big government are trying to take over our lives”.

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

BC Conservative MP Scott Anderson, a supporter of the farm, criticised what he characterised as a “poorly executed operation”.

“This operation has cost Canadians millions of dollars, hundreds of hours of RCMP overtime, and has turned the once peaceful town of Edgewood into something that looks like a science fiction movie set featuring Area 51,” Anderson said.