RFK Jr. Begs Canada to Pardon 400 Ostriches So That We Can ‘Understand' Them
The ostriches in question are at the heart of a legal battle in Ottawa, where federal judges are now deciding whether birds belonging to Universal Ostrich Farms, an animal reserve in British Columbia, should be destroyed or allowed to live. An outbreak at the farm in December resulted in the deaths of 69 birds, and, while hundreds of ostriches remain at the farm, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has mandated that those birds be culled to protect the region from a broader outbreak. The farm owners have maintained that this would be unnecessary and amounts to government overreach, The Globe and Mail reports. Kennedy, as well as a gaggle of MAGA influencers and other Trump officials, have repeatedly stepped in to ask that the lives of the sick birds be spared.
'The Secretary has urged Canada not to kill the ostriches but to do further testing to try to better understand the virus,' a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, which Kennedy runs, told Politico. Earlier this year, Kennedy also apparently told Canadian officials that 'significant scientific knowledge may be garnered from following the ostriches in a controlled environment.'
The whole let-bird-flu-run-wild thing has been a longstanding obsession with Kennedy. Earlier this year, the HHS czar suggested that U.S. farms with infected fowl 'should consider maybe the possibility of letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune to it.' Kennedy and other like-minded individuals believe that the birds that survive viruses like avian flu may have powerful antibodies that are worth studying, and that could be used to develop protections against future outbreaks. However, many science and health professionals have warned that by letting viruses spread, the government would merely be clearing the way for a broader pandemic and additional (and unnecessary) deaths.
Thankfully, Kennedy doesn't have the power to determine bird policy in the U.S. As head of the Department of Health and Human Services, he is only responsible for human health, not bird health (the Department of Agriculture is in charge of that), nor is he capable of making any decisions for the government of Canada. Instead, he has continued to use his public platform to advocate for the controversial notion of allowing viruses to spread.
Kennedy has a number of allies in his mission to save the birds. The U.S.'s administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Mehmet Oz (also known by his TV personality, Dr. Oz) has offered to let the birds stay at his 900-acre ranch in Florida. 'We're sticking our necks out for the birds,' Oz told the New York Post in May. 'The Canadians should stop putting their heads in the sand,' he continued, offering another tortured bird metaphor.
Kennedy's plea for an executioner's stay is sorta funny, given that the HHS director seems to have never met an animal he wasn't comfortable slaughtering—or whose corpse he wasn't interested in desecrating. In addition to Kennedy's admission that he once committed the chef d'oeuvre of public littering by dumping a bear cub corpse in Central Park, his daughter remembers fondly an incident in which he used a chainsaw to cut the head off of a beached whale. His cousin also claims he used to put baby chicks and mice into a blender to feed his hawks. He has denied eating a dog during a 2010 trip to Korea.
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5 hours ago
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15 hours ago
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FROM THE ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2025: DECADES-OLD LEAD POLLUTION LINKED TO MEMORY PROBLEMS IN OLDER ADULTS, STUDY FINDS
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Fox News
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Gary Brecka is a biologist, biohacker, longevity expert, the host of "The Ultimate Human" podcast and a supporter of "Make America Healthy Again," spearheaded by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "I'm very committed to the whole MAHA agenda, very supportive of Bobby Kennedy's agenda and President Trump's agenda to make America healthy again," Brecka said. Brecka spoke with Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview about why the health of Americans is falling behind despite how much is spent on healthcare in the U.S. "We've become the sickest, fattest, most disease-ridden nation in the world. And we are the largest spender on healthcare worldwide. So I'm committed to having whatever influence I can on public policy so that our children have a brighter future than we do," Brecka said. Brecka spent 20 years as a mortality researcher for large life insurance companies. 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And the rates of autism are exploding from one in 10,000 to one in 34 children. Learning disabilities are on the rise, the highest rates of childhood cancer, the high rates of childhood obesity. And so something has to change." The studies show that America leads in these conditions mentioned among developed nations including from AJMC, The Cancer Atlas, and The Lancet, NCD-RisC (2024), Health Action Research and the OCED. Rutgers published a study in April of this year, done by the CDC, that autism rates have reached a record high with approximately 1 in 31 children identified with "autism spectrum disorder." Brecka explained why, in part, he believes this is occurring. "We are slowly micro-poisoning ourselves to death. If you look at the greatest theories in aging right now and chronic disease, I think most experts would agree this is the theory of immuno-fatigue. And this is a slow progressive overwhelming of the immune system." Brecka said this goes beyond pathogens, like bacteria, viruses and pathogens that are known to get us sick. Brecka explained that our immune system works to keep us healthy and most Americans have had floating tumor cells at some point in their lives, but with the help of a healthy immune system, prevented these cells from becoming cancer. However, Brecka believes what is found in our food supply and daily items is part of what is making Americans sick. "Heavy metals, mold spores, mycotoxins, parasites, pathogens, viruses, glyphosates, bisphenols, all of the... Chemical synthetic pharmaceutical compounds that we put into the body, that we have no enzymes to digest, that we have no system to eliminate as waste. You find ourselves bathing our cellular biology in toxic soup." Some examples of heavy metals are lead and mercury. Although there have been lead bans and lead has been phased out of use since the 1970s, it is still possible to be exposed, especially from some imported products, and there is a risk of exposure from unfiltered drinking water. Mycotoxins are dangerous naturally occurring toxins produced by fungi. These can be found in peanuts, corn and milk products that come from containimated animal feed. Glyphosates are often sprayed pre- or post-harvest to manage weeds and dry down crops. Trace residues of glyphosates can be found on cereals and grain-based foods, oats and sometimes on beer and wine. To reduce exposure, some recommend choosing organic or non-GMO-certified foods and to wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly. However, the EPA says that glyphosates are "unlikely" to be a human carcinogen. A carcinogen refers to a substance or agent that causes cancer. Bisphenols are commonly used in the production of plastics and other packaging. This is why many advocate BPA-free-certified containers and avoid microwaving food in plastic. On this, Brecka said, "all of the chemical, synthetic, pharmaceutical compounds that we've put into the body that we have no enzymes to digest, that we have no system to eliminate as waste, you find ourselves bathing our cellular biology in toxic soup." "It's time that somebody stood up and said, 'Hey, we're not going to eliminate freedom of choice, but we are going to get known carcinogenic neurotoxic compounds to the extent that we can out of our food supply,'" Brecka said. Brecka said it is time to end corruption for a healthier America. "We're gonna get the corruption out of nutritional research and corruption you shouldn't have in private industry, food, pharma. Or any other industry for that matter, determining public policy, and then benefiting financially from those public policy initiatives and privatizing the profits while we socialize the expense." Brecka said he believes RFK Jr. is "fearlessly committed" to the mission and "ratting cages" to improve the health of Americans. "It is a myriad of things that have crept up over time, that our regulatory bodies have allowed to slip through, and the culmination of those things is devastating to the healthcare of America," Brecka said. Brecka believes it is time Americans saw a return on their healthcare spending. "At the end of the day, America's a business. You know, we need to turn a profit. We need to get a return on this healthcare spending. And for $5 trillion, we're not getting much of a return." The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement has taken off ever since HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s first pitch for a healthier America. MAHA aims to improve nutrition, eliminate toxins, preserve natural habitats and fight the chronic disease epidemic in this country, according to its website. Since the slogan's introduction in July 2024, many people — including everyone from Trump to social media influencers nationwide — have embraced the widespread effort to improve public health. In January, the FDA banned red dye — called Red 3, or erythrosine — from foods, dietary supplements and ingested medicines after being linked to cancer, as Fox News Digital previously reported. Food manufacturers have until 2027 to remove that dye from their products, while drug manufacturers will have until the following year. Artificial food colorings were originally manufactured from coal tar, while most synthetic food dyes today are made from petroleum or crude oil, according to the American Chemical Society (ACS) website. As the HHS noted in a press release in April, among the steps to be taken are "establishing a national standard and timeline for the food industry to transition from petrochemical-based dyes to natural alternatives; initiating the process to revoke authorization for two synthetic food colorings — Citrus Red No. 2 and Orange B — within the coming months; and working with industry to eliminate six remaining synthetic dyes — FD&C Green No. 3, FD&C Red No. 40, FD&C Yellow No. 5, FD&C Yellow No. 6, FD&C Blue No. 1, and FD&C Blue No. 2 — from the food supply by the end of next year." Watch Gary Brecka appear on "Fox & Friends" on July 28 at 6:50 am ET.
