Dead bird walking: RFK Jr. is the only hope for 399 healthy ostriches on Canada's chopping block​

MAHA Man to the rescue?

Hundreds of healthy ostriches owned by a small family farm in Canada are marked for death — unless U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can win them a stay of execution.

'What thugs could show up to kill your almost 400 animals that you've raised for 35 years?'

Karen Espersen and Dave Bilinski's Universal Ostrich Farms in the Kootenay region of British Columbia has become an international touchstone for hysteria over avian flu, government overreach, and the property rights of farmers.

Cull me, maybe

On Dec. 19, 2024, the couple noticed that one of their ostriches had symptoms of what appeared to be pneumonia. That bird recovered, but 69 other ostriches, introduced to the farm after 2020, died of apparent avian influenza.

Just under two weeks later, federal agents from the Canada Food Inspection Agency descended upon the farm to conduct tests on two of the dead ostriches. When they confirmed bird flu as the cause, they issued a cull order for the remaining 399 birds to be killed.

This is in keeping with the CFIA's policy of "stamping out" any bird populations in which avian flu is detected.

Yet Espersen and Bilinski claim that there have been no further incidences of sickness, something they credit to natural herd immunity. The CFIA, however, ignored their requests to have the healthy birds tested.

MAHA on a mission

Universal Ostrich Farms' lawyer argues that the CFIA has no reason to order the cull, as the farm's ostriches are not raised for their meat. Instead, their genes are used in valuable antibody studies.

When Espersen and Bilinski conducted their own testing, a local veterinarian identified the cause of death as resulting from pseudomonas, a bacteria that can be found in soil and water. This prompted the CFIA to issue an order restricting the farm owners from conducting any further testing at the risk of receiving a $200,000 fine and six months in jail.

Katie Pasitney. Photo: David Krayden

It was then that Espersen and Bilinski's daughter Katie Pasitney — who has since become the farm's spokesperson — reached out to RFK Jr., who immediately responded to the farmers’ plight. The Make America Healthy Again architect sent a letter to the CFIA, urging the Canadian government to allow science and not politics to govern its decision about culling the ostriches.

“It’s our hope that this collaboration will help us understand how to better protect human and animal populations and perhaps lead to the development of new vaccines and therapeutics,” Kennedy said in a post to X accompanying the letter, reported by a host of mainstream media.

Stay of execution?

That letter apparently moved Canadian Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald, because he announced that the government was reconsidering its decision to kill the birds. But he has been silent since that announcement.

Since then, it has been a standoff between the CFIA and the farm, where about 50 journalists and activists are camping out in order to dissuade the government from killing the birds.

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Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images

Speaking to Align on Wednesday, Pasitney said she is attempting to enlist a host of prominent people to express their support for the farm in person.

“We were inviting Elon Musk and we were inviting RFK out, trying to get that word out there a little bit more with education and awareness about how big this issue is. … RFK is still monitoring the issue, as well as Dr. Oz. So that is kind of an interesting situation."

Pasitney said the number of people staying at the farm fluctuates from 50 during the week to over 100 on the weekends.

“Just this last weekend, we had over 200 here. ... People come and go and take pictures of the big, beautiful, prehistoric ostriches. And it's really nice to be able to meet so many kind people who all ... feel like we deserve the change that we're fighting for,” she tells Blaze Media.

Like a thief in the night

According to Pastiney, communication with the CFIA is not so open.

“We don't even personally hear from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency any more. They don't email. … There's no communication [except via] a media release that they went and sent out to all the media,” Pasitney said.

The CFIA's message, however, remains chillingly clear: The culling could happen at any time.

"You can imagine the shock and trauma and the anxiety that a family would feel, living on the edge of their seat every day, not knowing if they're going to show up. … I guess they hire vendors to do it, but what thugs could show up to kill your almost 400 animals that you've raised for 35 years?”

But for Pasitney and her parents, this goes beyond the personal.

Not only does the "stamping out" policy destroy the livelihood of farmers, said Pasitney, it's also tampering with nature's built-in mechanism for controlling pandemics.

“We're wiping out natural immunity, herd immunity, which has existed for millions of years," said Pasitney. "If we do lose our natural immunity, we're setting ourselves up for a catastrophic bad chain of events in the future."