{"id":99638,"date":"2025-08-27T12:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T12:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/99638\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T12:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T12:39:07","slug":"new-york-billionaire-says-he-is-helping-fund-legal-fight-to-stop-cull-of-b-c-ostriches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/99638\/","title":{"rendered":"New York billionaire says he is helping fund legal fight to stop cull of B.C. ostriches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Businessman John Catsimatidis in New York in 2024. He says he and a friend have contributed about US$35,000 to a legal fight to stop the cull of a flock of about 400 ostriches.Ted Shaffrey\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

A New York billionaire who is an avid supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> says he is helping fund the legal battle by a British Columbia ostrich farm against an order to cull their flock of about 400 birds after an avian flu outbreak.<\/p>\n

John Catsimatidis says he and a friend have contributed about US$35,000 to the legal fight by Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood in B.C.\u2019s Interior, to stop the cull ordered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Catsimatidis says in an interview that he heard about the farm when the co-owner\u2019s daughter, Katie Pasitney, called the New York radio station that he owns, and Americans are getting involved in the case because they care about the animals.<\/p>\n

B.C. farmers ask Supreme Court to delay cull of 400 ostriches, say birds don\u2019t have flu<\/a><\/p>\n

B.C. owners of ostriches hope high-powered names and bird-flu survivor will save flock from cull<\/a><\/p>\n

He says the more he heard about the situation at the farm, the more interested he became, causing him to reach out to U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and fellow U.S. health official Dr. Mehmet Oz, both of whom say the birds should be spared.<\/p>\n

Catsimatidis, whom Trump has called a long-time friend, says the President is also aware of the case, which Kennedy has raised with him.<\/p>\n

He says if the roles were reversed, he would not have a problem with a wealthy Canadian attempting to exert influence on U.S. policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Canadian people and the people of the United States are one people. We depend on each other. We\u2019ve always depended on each other, and we have to help each other, because we\u2019re in the same boat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He called the ostriches iconic, ancient animals that deserve to live.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

An ostrich at Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, B.C., in May.AARON HEMENS\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Catsimatidis is best known as the owner of New York City supermarket chain Gristedes and hosts a weekly show on WABC, a radio station he purchased in 2020.<\/p>\n

The 76-year-old is CEO of the Red Apple Group of companies, which includes oil refinery and real estate holdings, and has a net worth pegged at US$4.5-billion by Forbes magazine, making him its 875th richest person in the world.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Catsimatidis hosted a news conference with Pasitney and Oz, where he spoke of his financial contributions to the legal expenses of the farm owners, whose lawyer wants to take the case to the Supreme Court of Canada after the Federal Court of Appeal upheld the cull order last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think these animals deserve to live. And if they\u2019re killed, we\u2019re not going to end it there. There\u2019s going to be massive investigations on why the rush to kill these animals,\u201d said Catsimatidis, whose daughter, Andrea Catsimatidis, is chairwoman of the Manhattan Republican party.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency ordered the cull in December during an outbreak of H5N1 flu that went on to kill 69 ostriches at the farm that month and in January.<\/p>\n

While the farm\u2019s supporters argue the surviving birds are no longer a threat and can be used for research, the agency has maintained that the cull is necessary because exposed flocks create an opportunity for the virus to mutate.<\/p>\n

Oz, a former TV personality and surgeon who is now the administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has said the birds should be spared because they could harbour secrets about avian flu, and has offered to have the birds live on his Florida ranch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Businessman John Catsimatidis in New York in 2024. He says he and a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,9601,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-99638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-pleasemod","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}