Opposition to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s (CFIA) plan to so-called “humanely depopulate” a healthy flock of ostriches in remote Edgewood, British Columbia, has grown from grassroots protesting to international political debate and concern.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the former TV host and Trump administration health official, is the latest to jump to the defence of Universal Ostrich Farms’ efforts to save their flock of nearly 400 ostriches slated for destruction by the CFIA, based on controversial PCR tests the federal agency conducted on two of the farm’s deceased ostriches late last year.

Go Ad Free

The CFIA claims the two carcasses tested positive for avian flu, but the farmers maintain that the vast majority of their flock was asymptomatic and certainly poses no risk to the public five months after the cull order was initially issued.

Despite legal battles and growing political and public support for their plight—including peaceful, Freedom Convoy-style demonstrators camping out at the farm in protest of the looming cull— the CFIA has refused to test the living and thriving prehistoric creatures, even though the birds are part of a research partnership where their robust antibodies are used to create a non-mRNA intervention that the farmers say can neutralize COVID-19 and the H5N1 avian influenza.

In an exclusive comment to the New York Post, Oz revealed he is offering his 900-acre Florida ranch as a sanctuary for the birds. “We’re sticking our necks out for the birds,” Oz said. “The Canadians should stop putting their heads in the sand. We just have to get [the ostriches] out of Canada.”

His offer follows the recent intervention by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who, alongside the heads of the FDA and NIH, sent a formal letter urging the CFIA to halt the destruction and instead allow the birds to be studied for their immunity to avian influenza.

“These animals live to be 50 years old, they’re not badly affected by bird flu, and we should be studying them,” Kennedy said on supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis' The Cats Roundtable. “I’m horrified that they are going to kill these animals.”

Kennedy’s letter emphasized that indiscriminate mass culling, especially of healthy animals, risks destroying rare genetic resilience that scientists are only beginning to understand.

Rebel News, while on site at the farm, captured the emotional moment Katie Pasitney, the farmer’s daughter and spokesperson for Universal Ostrich Farms, shared Kennedy’s letter by reading it to some of the supporters camping in protest at the farm.

BREAKING: RFK Jr. puts pressure on Canada to stop the senseless ostrich cull and follow the science. https://t.co/oh7RckcSiy

— Drea Humphrey (@DreaHumphrey) May 24, 2025

“I never thought that a few nights ago I’d be on the phone arranging messages between Kennedy and John Catsimatidis at 3 in the morning,” she said.

“I was drifting in and out of sleep, thinking I was dreaming. But he said that he would write a letter to our Canadian government, and we got that.”

Earlier today, Monday, May 26, the farmers filed a Notice of Appeal against the CFIA’s order. As a result, the CFIA agreed to a rare legal arrangement that temporarily pauses the cull until a new decision is made on the matter.

“We are still pushing forward very much with public opinion and awareness and education around the matter of avian influenza and the migratory bird status,” added Pasitney.

“Keep up your prayers because there is still an open cull order, so let’s just keep up our prayers and all the support.”

Rebel News is committed to keeping you updated on what’s happening in Edgewood, B.C., as this unprecedented battle for farming sovereignty and against government overreach unfolds. To help support our independent journalism, and to send the CFIA an email demanding they back down from their kill mission, please visit SaveTheOstriches.com.