A BC Ostrich farm has lost its case to save its birds from a sacrifice order issued by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in January.
But the owners of the farm say they will not give up, and have asked supporters to meet them this weekend to “face destruction and throw a love of love.”
They also say that they are reaching high profile followers in the United States to get help, declaring that “everything is on the table.”
The case of the farm in Edgewood, BC, on a trip of approximately 200 kilometers from Kelowna on a sinuous rural road, has become an international inflammation point in the management of the aviar flu, which has devastated the poultry industry on both sides of the Canada border, and uses the attention of the Secretary of Health of the United States, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Television presenter Dr. Mehmet Oz, and the USUSMATIDE border, and the USUSMATIDE border, and the USMatida, and USuditis border, and the USMATIDA border, and USUDITIS, AND US USUDITIS, AND US USUDITIS, AND US USUDISEAIRE, AND USUDITIS. inter alia.
However, the decision itself is relatively direct, according to a ruling from the previous Federal Court that found that the CFIA legally acted when ordering the sacrifice, and that its policy about “eliminating” the flu avian through such massive sacrifices is within its reach and based on scientific evidence.
New aviar flu strain
The CFIA ordered the sacrifice after two dead birds in the universal ostric farm in Edgewood, BC, positive for the avian flu in December, a tension that the agency would say later had never been seen before, although it did not detail whether it was a source of greater concern than other tensions.
The farm housed about 450 ostriches, and the farm admitted that between December 14, 2024 and January 14, 2025, “69 young and feminine breeders died, most of them under four years old.”
But the farm also said that after that initial outbreak, the remaining birds were healthy and did not exhibit signs of illness and has tried to argue that surviving birds should be allowed to live, and potentially studied to see if birds could provide information on how to fight the disease.
They have also argued that ostriches should not be the same way as other poultry, and tried to obtain a request for fresh tests from surviving birds to determine if the avian flu is still circulating.
The CFIA, on the other hand, says that its “stamping” policy, or killing, all birds in a property where avian flu is detected, is necessary to stop the potential propagation of the disease, as well as to keep Canada that complies with international commercial agreements that depend on similar policies that follow.
He also said that there was limited evidence that studying birds would have scientific value, partly because the conditions in which they lived lacked what was necessary for a scientific study.
CFIA has the authority to order, the courts say
The first case came to the Federal Court in April, and the judge finally said that the CFIA had the authority to make decisions on how to manage the threat of the avian flu, and it was not the place of the courts to guess those processes. Instead, he declared the ruling, he had to make sure that the CFIA would have followed his own policies, which he had.
Then, the farm appealed that case, but the unanimous ruling published on Thursday was very similar.
“The appellant [Universal Ostrich] He is encouraging the court to use the new evidence to decide again the decisions of the CFIA based on what he states that it is the situation today, “says the ruling.
After hours of arguments, the destiny of a now famous BC ostriches that was ordered to be sacrificed after an avian flu outbreak now falls to the Federal Appeals Court. The universal ostrich farm has received the support of prominent activists and figures in the Trump administration.
“That is not our role. We only have the task of reviewing the reasonableness of the decisions of the CFIA at the time they were taken, which is the essence of the judicial review remedy.”
He then detailed the steps that the CFIA had made to make the decision on the order of sacrifice, and took note of the fact that, unlike the statements of universal ostrich, the agency had existing investigations and policies around ostriches based on scientific evidence.
The ruling establishes that the farm will also have to pay the “all -inclusive amount of $ 7,000” associated with the cost of the appeal.
The farm also has the right to compensation for the loss of birds, up to $ 3,000 per animal.
The CFIA said in a statement after Thursday’s ruling that “it usually does not divide details on individual farm operations to help protect the privacy of producers.”
“Consequently, specific plans and operational dates will not be shared with the public in advance.”
The farm calls for followers to meet this weekend
Speaking to CBC News, Katie Pasitney, the farm spokeswoman, described the news of “devastating.”
She told CBC Radio to the west The guest host Brady Strachan that “everything is on the table” when it comes to trying to save the birds, and that she had already contacted the followers in the United States to get help.
Dr. Oz, who is now the administrator of the US centers for the services of Medicare and Medicaid, has offered to take the ostrurts in his ranch in the United States. The farm also received the support of Catsimatidis, the American billionaire who has used his political influence to attract the attention of the leaders, including Kennedy, Jr., as well as the Prime Minister of Ontario, Doug Ford, who told journalists in July that I want to do anything I can to help them [the ostriches]…. anything John needs, I’m always there to support him. ”
Meanwhile, said Pasitney, the farm is consulting with the lawyers about the next steps.
“At any time, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency could come and kill our healthy ostriches,” he wrote on Facebook, adding that the farm plans to request a suspension order to prevent that from happening, while admitting that the probabilities of success are “very low.”
“For 219 days, our flock has remained strong, vibrant and healthy,” he said. “The CFIA has not set foot on our farm in more than five months, but still states that there is a threat here.”
She said that the farm would open its doors to each and every one of the followers during the weekend, writing: “If you feel called, come camp with us … together, we can stop against destruction and shine a love of love.”
Front burnerCan RFK Jr. Save the ostrurts of BC’s death row?
A billionaire from New York City and conservative radio presenter. Two of the most vocally anti -antix members of the Donald Trump administration. The protesters associated with the “convoy of freedom” that occupied the center of Ottawa in 2022. What do they have in common? Everyone wants to save a herd of more than 400 ostriches in a small farm in the rural area of BC earlier this year, Universal Ostrich Farms were ordered to sacrifice their remaining birds after a peak of aviar flu killed dozens of them. But the farm has been fighting against the order of the government in court, claiming that ostriches antibodies are crucial for the investigation of alternatives to traditional vaccines. Marc Fawcett-Atkinson, a reporter from the National observer of Canada, explains why the history of the farm has spread so widely through the right-wing media ecosystem, finding so much synergy with skepticism of vaccines, climate denial and other conspiracy theories about shady offers for global control.
