The Federal Court of Appeals heard arguments of a BC ostrication farm on Tuesday, since it sought to protect its flock from an orderly sacrifice due to avian flu, in a case that has caused accusations of extralimitation of the government of critics in Canada and the United States.
Judge Mary Gleason said that the panel of three judges would reserve her decision at a later date, but will try to do it quickly, pointing out that the case dates back to December.
The universal ostrich in Edgewood, BC, received the order to sacrifice more than 400 birds after highly pathogenic avian flu was detected in the farm last December.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) ordered the sacrifice as part of a pattern of pattern to deal with the disease, which led to more than eight million birds were infected only in BC, and the agency argued that they represent a risk of spreading the virus, affecting Canada’s food security.
The Federal Court of Appeals reserved its decision on the BC Ostrich Cull. This occurs after the universal ostrich in Edgewood, BC, received the order to sacrifice more than 400 birds after highly pathogenesis avian flu was detected in the farm last December.
Universal ostrich has argued, however, that avian flu has not been detected in the farm in months, and birds must be tested for their ability to resist greater infection.
While its cause has captured the attention of followers in BC and worldwide, including the Secretary of Health of the United States, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz, a federal cested judge was put on the side of the CFIA after the farm presented a judicial challenge in May.
On Tuesday, the Federal Court of Appeals in Ottawa heard again the arguments of the farm, after having ordered the sacrifice to stop waiting for the result of the audience of a day.
Universal Ostrich’s lawyer, Umar Sheikh, said the CFIA was being rigid in its application of the pattern policy, and the case of the farm demonstrated why inflexible policy could produce unreasonable results.
He said that the sacrifice was ordered less than an hour after only two birds, of a confirmed death of 69 deaths, it was confirmed that they contracted avian flu, and hundreds of birds showed no signs of infection months later.
“We would ask questions like why the destruction of 100 percent should occur depending on the confection of 0.5 percent?” asked.
The owners of Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, BC, have been fighting a request from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to sacrifice their flock after it was beaten with an avian flu outbreak last year.
Sheikh said that the farm did not disagree with the policy of printed in itself, but that the decision was made without pointing out the circumstances of the universal ostrich.
Aileen Jones, the CFIA lawyer, told the court that the reason why only two mortalities were tested before sacrifice was that the remaining ostriches had already been eliminated or were in an advanced stage of decomposition.
He had previously said that the agency had found a variant novel of Aviar Flu on the farm, confirmed in the tests of multiple experts and said Tuesday that the farm was trying to return to the pattern policy already argued in a lower court.
“Court’s work is, as a threshold question, [is] To determine if the pattern policy is a reasonable policy, “Jones said.
“That is a threshold question that the Federal Court made and answered affirmatively: ‘Yes, it is a reasonable policy.'”
The farm spokesman RFK Jr.
Katie Pasitney, whose mother, Karen Miran, co -owner of the Universal ostrich, was in court on Tuesday along with a handful of followers. Some wore signs with “Save the Ostrich” slogans and wear t -shirts with ostriches in them.
Several shook their heads when government lawyers notified the court that will seek $ 7,000 in costs if the court governs in their favor.
Pasitney says that the struggle of her farm to save the ostrich flock is part of an impulse to achieve policy reform and avoid unfair sacrifices, which she says they are negatively affecting the small farmers in Canada.
“We want to try animals, demonstrate that they are healthy, work with the Canadian food inspection agency such as a recovered flock, see how we can help farms in the future, so we don’t need to continue killing unnecessary animals,” he told Brady Strachan, CBC’s guest host. West radio.
A BC BC farm of BC is receiving support from the south of the border. As Brady Strachan reports, a couple of high -profile officials within the US administration have met with the Canadian authorities and asked them to preserve the ostrurts for scientific research.
On Tuesday, Pasitney said the farm “did not go back”, even if it lost the case.
“This is a fight for all Canadians, a struggle for small farmers,” he said.
“We need to restore eroded trust in organizations such as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and simply support our farmers and not attack them.”
She thanked Kennedy Jr., Dr. Oz and billionaire John Catsimatidis, who have written letters in support of the farm to Prime Minister Mark Carney. Pasitney said the president of the United States, Donald Trump, was also aware of the case.
“I think we will see where that goes from here because we know that Dr. Oz and RFK are very passionate about this, as well as John Catsimatidis.”
Universal Ostrich Farms has said that the loss of herd would take its three decades out of business.
The Federal Court of Appeals previously refused to let the farm perform new diagnostic tests on their birds.
In a ruling in May that allowed the sacrifice of the CFIA to continue, the judge of the Federal Court Russel Zinn wrote that although he has “considerable sympathy” by the farmers, he also discovered that the sacrifice was ordered after the appropriate procedure under the mandate of the CFIA to avoid the propagation of the avian flu.
