Birds of a feather …
Animal-loving New York Metropolis grocery store billionaire John Catsimatidis has joined forces with emu-owning federal well being Commissioner Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in urging Canadian officers to take their heads out of the sand to avoid wasting ostriches at a north-of-the-border hen farm.
Catsimatidis instructed The Put up on Sunday he’s grateful the pinnacle of Well being and Human Companies can be now sticking his neck out for the trigger, which he has been pushing since final month, as first reported by The Put up’s Web page Six.
“Let’s save the ostriches! They have a right to live if they are healthy,” stated the Gristedes grocery store founder, who additionally owns 770 WABC radio.
The Canadian Meals Inspection Company has stated it must kill practically 400 of the birds on the Common Ostrich Farm in British Columbia to curb the unfold of the avian flu.
Catsimatidis, who additionally owns oil and bio-fuel companies, stated he raised the alarm after animal-rights activists alerted him to the scenario.
“I love animals. Let’s save the whales, too,” he stated — noting his subsequent undertaking is shield whales from being imperiled by offshore wind-power set-ups.
The mogul additionally has been identified to like pandas, as soon as making an attempt to persuade the Chinese language authorities to mortgage out the bears to the Huge Apple’s Central Park Zoo.
As for the ostriches, Kennedy, together with the heads of the US Meals and Drug Administration and Nationwide Institutes of Well being, despatched a Could 23 letter to the Canadian company urging it to rethink its plan.
The birds don’t should be killed to thwart the flu, wrote RFK Jr., who famously owns a pet emu, within the letter first reported by Insurgent Information.
The ostriches must be preserved for long-term scientific examine as an alternative of culling or killing them, he stated, echoing Catsimatidis’ stance.
“Ostriches can live up to 50 years, providing the opportunity for future insights into immune longevity associated with the H5N1 virus,” Kennedy stated within the letter co-signed by NIH Director Jay Bhattachary and FDA Commissioner Martin Makary.
“The indiscriminate destruction of entire flocks without up-to-date testing and evaluation can have significant consequences, including the loss of valuable genetic stock that may help explain risk factors for H5N1 mortality,” the letter stated. “This may be important for future agricultural resilience.”
The missive added that avian influenza has been endemic in birds for 1000’s of years and that culling birds could be “fruitless unless we are willing to exterminate every wild bird in North America.”
“We’re dealing with a bunch of bureaucrats in Canada. They’re mean-spirited,” Catstimatidis stated.
“Test the ostriches. They are not sick!”
He added that the ostriches might have “herd immunity” whose antibodies might be studied to avoid wasting human lives.
