More than 300 ostriches shot dead by firing squad on Canadian farm after bird flu allegations

More than 300 ostriches were shot dead by a firing squad in Canada late Thursday — ending a months-long standoff that drew in US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and New York billionaire John Catsimatidis, who had begged officials to spare the birds.

The mass killing unfolded at Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, British Columbia, hours after the Supreme Court of Canada refused to block a federal order to cull the flock following an avian flu outbreak, CBC reported.

Canada apparently snubbed its neighbor to the south by refusing to spare the 330 giant birds to be used for research purposes.

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“That’s a real f–k you to everyone in the United States,” Catsimatidis told The Post last month.

“Something smells.”

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency ordered the culling to curb the spread of the avian flu after an outbreak at the farm last winter killed 69 ostriches.

But a spokeswoman for the farm has insisted that the rest of the flock remained healthy. 

Kennedy and Catsimatidis had spent weeks urging Ottawa to halt the slaughter, arguing the birds were healthy and could aid in research on natural immunity to the virus.

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“Ostriches can live up to 50 years, providing the opportunity for future insights into immune longevity associated with the H5N1 virus,” Kennedy, who owns a pet emu, wrote in a May 23 letter to the CFIA co-signed by National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya and Food and Drug Administration boss Martin Makary.

“The indiscriminate destruction of entire flocks … can have significant consequences, including the loss of valuable genetic stock that may help explain risk factors for H5N1 mortality,” the letter said.

“This may be important for future agricultural resilience.”

Witnesses said CFIA trucks and SUVs rolled into the Edgewood property around 6 p.m. local time Thursday.

Men in protective suits carried equipment into the pens as supporters outside prayed and shouted for the birds. Minutes later, the sound of gunfire echoed across the farm.

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Farm supporter Janice Tyndall, 72, said she listened to the gunfire “intermittently for a couple hours” before she “couldn’t stomach it anymore” and left the scene.

The farmer from Salmon Arm, about 125 miles north of Edgewood, said she was back in her car near the property around midnight when she heard the shooting start again.

“I’m thinking, ‘they’re still shooting? How could they still be shooting?’” she told the Times Colonist.

She described the sounds as a mix of “lower bangs” and others higher, “like somebody with a high-powered rifle.”

Police officers secured the area and closed a road during the cull, saying their presence was needed for safety due to “weeks of threats and intimidation towards CFIA agents and contractors.”

According to a police news release, the RCMP “did not otherwise take an active role in the cull.”

Staff Sgt. Kris Clark, who was on site Thursday, said the operation was temporarily halted for security reasons during a police shift change.

“With our oversight of safety protocols, no one was injured during the dynamic portion of the CFIA operation, and no arrests were made,” he said.