Kennedy,Oz Unite to Save 400 Canadian Ostriches on the Chopping Block

An ostrich farm in British Columbia is under court order to cull the flock – or wobble, in ostrich-speak – as the birds have come in contact with a strain of the deadly avian flu virus, H5N1.

Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, BC has defied the court order for weeks, but now faces a $20,000 fine for its refusal to quarantine or cull its birds. The farm, which has already culled 69 infected animals, say the remainder of the wobble should be kept alive and under observation for research purposes.

“What would you do if, after thirty years of raising and caring for animals on your farm, the government suddenly showed up and ordered you to slaughter them?” the farm asks on its website, Save Our Ostriches.

Federal court dismissed the farm’s challenges to the ruling on May 13. “The farm,” the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in a statement, “failed to undertake appropriate biosecurity risk mitigation measures such as limiting wild bird access to the ostriches, controlling water flow from the quarantine zone to other parts of the farm, or improving fencing.”

The agency is also skeptical of the farm’s claim to research: “CFIA has not received any evidence of scientific research being done at the infected premises.”

Universal has attracted allies within Canada and south of the border. US secretary of health and human services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has come to the ostriches’ defense and urges Canada to test rather than kill the birds.  “We believe significant scientific knowledge may be garnered from following the ostriches in a controlled environment,” Kennedy said in a letter to CFIA.

Mehmet Oz, director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, has also weighed in on behalf of the ostriches, offering to move the birds to his ranch in Okeechobee, Florida.

But these high-profile allies haven’t been enough to stay the executions of the ostriches. The CFIA is planning to move ahead with the cull, even as the farm and its supporters have occupied the property “in an apparent attempt to prevent the CFIA from carrying out its operations at the infected premises,” according to the agency. This won’t end well.

Photo credit: Save our Ostriches