Save the sick birds: RFK Jr. wants Canada to let 400 ostriches live despite being infected with bird flu

It’s not every day that the man in charge of America’s public health policy goes to bat for a few hundred Canadian ostriches – but then again, it’s fair to say that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is not your everyday health secretary. Known for controversial stances and even stranger personal habits (did you hear about the freezing of roadkill?), Kennedy is now urging Canada to spare 400 ostriches exposed to bird flu, arguing they could offer rare insight into how the virus works.

Why are the ostriches at risk?

The birds live on Universal Ostrich Farms in British Columbia, where an avian flu outbreak last December killed 69 ostriches. Since then, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has been pushing for a full cull. Farm owners, backed by some MAGA-aligned officials and anti-establishment influencers, say that’s unnecessary and possibly unconstitutional.

Kennedy has stepped in to plead for science – and the lives of the birds.

“The Secretary has urged Canada not to kill the ostriches but to do further testing,” an HHS spokesperson told Politico. Kennedy himself told Canadian officials that “significant scientific knowledge may be garnered” by studying the surviving ostriches in a controlled setting.

Why does RFK Jr. want to let bird flu run wild?

This isn’t a one-off. Earlier this year, Kennedy floated the idea of letting avian flu “run through the flock” on U.S. farms, suggesting that surviving birds might have useful antibodies. Public health experts warn this is exactly how pandemics start. But Kennedy, who doesn’t actually control U.S. animal health policy (that’s the USDA), keeps pushing the theory anyway.

And he’s not alone. Dr. Mehmet Oz has offered to relocate the ostriches to his Florida ranch, telling the New York Post: “We’re sticking our necks out for the birds.” Not the first tortured bird metaphor of this saga, and probably not the last.

It’s easy to laugh, of course, until you remember that the guy asking to spare bird-flu-infected ostriches is also managing your country’s health system. I’ll admit, when I first read about this, I thought it was satire. But the dead-serious court battle playing out in Ottawa right now proves otherwise. And if Kennedy gets his way, Canada may be the place where bird flu learns to fight back.

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