Robert F Kennedy Jr and Dr Mehmet Oz have offered refuge to a flock of 400 ostriches facing certain death in Canada.

The US health secretary and director of the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have intervened to rescue the flightless birds after British Columbia authorities pledged to cull them amid an outbreak of avian flu.

Dr Oz, a former television doctor, added his name to a list of activists fighting to save the ostriches and offered his 900-acre ranch in Okeechobee, Florida, as a potential sanctuary.

“We’re sticking our necks out for the birds,” Dr Oz told The New York Post. “The Canadians should stop putting their heads in the sand.”

Canadian authorities in December ordered all ostriches to be killed at a British Columbia farm after the highly contagious flu was detected in two bird carcasses.

A federal court upheld the order of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency earlier this month, prompting hundreds of protesters to flock to the farm to protect the birds.