High-profile officials in the U.S. federal government, along with a prominent billionaire, are now weighing in on the fate of a flock of ostriches ordered killed on a farm in a remote part of the B.C. Interior.
Former TV host Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is now the administrator for the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has offered to relocate the birds to his ranch in Florida, as first reported by the New York Post.
CBC News has confirmed the offer with Katie Pasitney, who is acting as a spokesperson for Universal Ostrich in Edgewood, B.C., which is co-owned by her mother. She said Oz had called the farm Monday morning to discuss the offer, and they were considering it, but in a later interview with the Canadian Press, she said they are not interested in relocating the birds.
Meanwhile, American billionaire John Catsimatidis said in a statement that he, along with Oz and U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., are seeking a “diplomatic meeting with Canadian officials” about the fate of the ostriches before irreversible harm is done.”
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Catsimatidis, who is CEO of Red Apple Group, which includes grocery chains and New York radio station 77 WABC, said in the statement that he wants health officials from the United States to be able to evaluate the health of the birds.
The intervention of Catsimatidis and Oz following the revelation last week that Kennedy had already held a meeting with the president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, in which he urged Canadian officials to reconsider their order that the ostriches be killed.
That order came after CFIA inspectors received an anonymous tip in December 2024 about birds on the ranch dying. They collected samples from two dead birds and confirmed through repeated tests that they had been infected with the H5N1 strain of avian flu.
At that point, the entire flock of nearly 400 ostriches was ordered killed, following a “stamping out” policy aimed at controlling the disease.
But the farm argues that after the initial infection period, during which 69 birds died, the remainder have either recovered or never showed symptoms of being infected, with the last death occurring in January.
On those grounds, they have argued the remainder should be allowed to live, and even suggested there may be information to be gained about immunity to the disease.
Court documents show that the CFIA did walk the farm through the process of applying for an exemption, and that during this process, Universal Ostrich pointed to its partnership with researchers looking at ostrich antibodies.
However, the CFIA said the farm failed to provide satisfactory evidence that the ostriches are genetically unique enough to warrant an exemption and decided that the cull should proceed.
The CFIA says the policy of “stamping out” infected flocks is based on World Organization for Animal Health recommendations, and is required on both economic and public health grounds.
“We have a duty to protect Canadians from the serious potential risks of HPAI (highly pathogenic avian flu),” it said in a statement on the decision.
“Our response aims to protect human and animal health and minimize impacts on the $6.8 billion domestic poultry industry and Canada’s economy. This supports Canadian families and poultry farmers whose livelihoods depend on maintaining international market access.”
The remote community of Edgewood, B.C., is now ground zero for a fight to save 400 ostriches. Protesters have descended on Universal Ostrich Farm this weekend, defying an avian flu cull order. Radio-Canada’s Camille Vernet was there this week, exploring why people are so deeply invested in this flock’s fate.
Only one exemption to a cull order has been granted in Canada, in the case of a turkey farm where the infected flock of birds had been kept in a completely separate barn from other birds, and staff followed health and safety measures to ensure no spread of disease between the animals — conditions not present at Universal Ostrich, where the birds are in open pens and can interact with wild birds and animals.
Milton Dyck, president of the Agriculture Union, which represents CFIA workers, said the success of Canada’s approach to the avian flu versus that of the United States could be seen in the recent spike in egg prices south of the border which resulted, in part, from commercial flocks being infected with the disease.
“In Canada, because of the work we’ve done, we’ve managed to not have huge egg price increases because we’ve managed to protect our flocks, and that is partly by the culling that we do,” he said.
Dyck acknowledged the toll losing animals can have on any farmer, saying it wasn’t a decision made lightly, but at the same time urged supporters of the farm to understand that the CFIA and the employees tasked with carrying out the cull do not make decisions likely and should be allowed to work safely.
The farm has attracted attention online from a number of groups, including some who view the cull order as an example of government overreach.
Though the farm itself has consistently asked for supporters to remain calm and peaceful, Dyck said some of the online rhetoric from other groups has boiled over to violent threats, and said his members are feeling increasingly unsafe when on the job.
“Nobody likes to see their flocks culled, and we certainly don’t take any pleasure in doing it, but … it is our jobs, it’s our mandate for the safety of Canadians to ensure that we carry out our job,” he said.
