The union that represents the workers of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in charge of carrying out a sacrifice in a BC ostric farm says that there are fears about the safety of workers as emotions are high.
More than 400 birds in Universal Ostrich Farm in Edgewood, BC, face the possibility of a sacrifice due to an avian flu detection in December.
The CFIA, which manages Canada’s response to an in -progressive flu outbreak, won a judicial case earlier this month and says that the sacrifice will continue due to concerns about the propagation and virus mutation.
But a contingent vocal of supporters, including the Secretary of Health of the United States, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has spoken against sacrifice, arguing non -flying birds, many decades of seniority, represent a small threat of propagation of avian flu and the flock must be preserved for a scientific study.
The remote community of Edgewood, BC, is now the zero zone for a fight to save 400 ostriches. The protesters have descended in Universal Ostrich Farm this weekend, challenging an order to avian flu. Camille Vernet of Radio-Canada was there this week, exploring why people are so deeply inverted in the fate of this flock.
The supporters have camped on Edgewood’s farm for weeks, saying that they will not allow the sacrifice to continue, even when the farm spokeswoman, Katie Pasitney, has repeatedly urged the followers to be peaceful, respectful and follow the law.
Now, the union that represents the workers of the CFIA says that he is afraid of his safety, about the online death threats that, they says, they were made against the members of the CFIA.
“Nobody likes to see their flocks, and we certainly do not please us, but … it is our work, it is our mandate for the safety of Canadians to make sure to carry out our work,” said Milton Dyck, president of the Agricultural Union, in an interview with CBC News.
Dyck said a CFIA vehicle in the farm area also threw himself with a rock, but he doesn’t know if that was directly related to planned ostrich sacrifice.
He said that the average worker was not responsible for Cull’s decision, which the CFIA says that it is due to broader concerns about the virus mutation and the impact it could have on the Food Supply of Canada.
“Some people will be passionate about what their reasons for maintaining ostriches are, whether they love ostrurts, whether they feel personally for the disease,” he said.
“But we have to look at it while we are doing a service to Canadians because we are protecting the health and safety of Canadians. We are protecting the value of the food chain in the future.”
The protesters began to meet this weekend at Universal Ostrich Farm in the Edgewood community, because they are there to protest a federal order to sacrifice a flock of almost 400 birds. As Camille Vernet of Radio-Canada explains, it occurs after the farm lost a judicial challenge of the sacrifice last week.
In a statement, the union said that they supported each individual’s right to the peaceful protest, provided that it does not obstruct the work of its members.
While the CFIA has said that the sacrifice would be proceeding, it has not provided an exact date when it occurs.
