Tears on ostrich farm after court rejects appeal bid and CFIA says cull will proceed

EDGEWOOD, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA – The highway overlooking Universal Ostrich Farms was lined with its supporters on Thursday, some hugging and crying, some jeering at Canadian Food Inspection Agency workers in white biohazard suits. 

“CFIA you can stop!” yelled Katie Pasitney, whose mother, Karen Espersen, co-owns the farm near the tiny community of Edgewood in southeastern B.C. “Run, pretty birds!”

Supporter Jeff Gaudry shouted to the workers through a loudspeaker: “You should be ashamed of yourself. You should go in there and let them cull you.”

In the field below, agency staff were rounding up the farm’s ostriches, corralling them into an enclosure made of hay bales about three to four metres high.

Hours earlier, the Supreme Court of Canada had said it would not hear the farmers’ final appeal against a cull of the birds, and the CFIA announced it was moving ahead with “complete depopulation and disposal” of the flock of hundreds of ostriches. 

The hay barrier prevented a ground-level view inside the enclosure but an elevated position showed scores of birds milling around, as well as two dark, tent-like structures. 

As dusk descended, the scene was illuminated by floodlights, and a worker entered the enclosure carrying a long bag.

It has been a 10-month saga since the CFIA ordered the cull on Dec. 31, 41 minutes after a lab test on a dead ostrich came back positive for avian flu amid an outbreak that went on to kill about 70 of the birds. 

Along the way it would draw attention from United States President Donald Trump’s administration, as well as domestic critics of government overreach who likened protests at the farm to the “Freedom Convoy” movement.

The farmers’ had lost their case against the cull in Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal, but the operation was repeatedly delayed by court stays before Thursday’s blow, which removed any legal impediment to the killings.

A statement from the CFIA on Thursday said it had respected all orders of the courts “and expects the ostrich farm owners and supporters to do the same now that the Supreme Court of Canada has issued its judgment.”

Supporters had gathered at the property ahead of the decision, vehicles filing in before first light as rain streamed down.

A few dozen people formed a circle as co-owner Dave Bilinski delivered the news, which came at 6:45 a.m.

“Maybe a miracle will happen yet” he said, as one protester called the CFIA “criminals,” and said she would leave Canada.

The group then held a prayer asking for a “miracle Thursday.”

The farm’s owners have argued the surviving birds show no signs of illness and should be spared, saying they have acquired “herd immunity” and have scientific value, while the inspection agency has said ostriches that appear healthy may still spread the disease.

The CFIA and police arrived at the farm in September and took custody of the flock, which the agency says numbers between 300 and 330 birds.

The inspection agency has not said how it will kill the ostriches, but in a statement Thursday said its Common Procedures Manual on depopulating commercial and backyard flocks still describes “best practices” for culling the animals. 

The manual, first released under the Access to Information Act in 2023, says ostriches can be killed by methods that include breaking their necks, lethal injection, gassing or shooting.

It details a method of lethal injection to the skull of an ostrich involving three people, “one to hold the bird by sitting on its back, one to hold the head, and one to inject the drug.”

Such “intercranial injection” is said to be “quick and minimally stressful to the bird, though may be emotional for owners to watch.”

Pasitney said the ostriches are all her family has loved for the last 35 years. 

“I ask for the world to rise up, Canada to rise up, our farmers to rise up and make this a revolution,” she said on Thursday, while wiping away tears. 

“This is our time to change history, and this is the time to protect your animals and protect your land rights, and protect yourself, you protect your children and you protect your grandchildren’s future because this isn’t the Canada that we want.”

Pasitney said she would make it her “life’s mission” to ensure the CFIA would no longer be able to operate in the same way.

She told reporters after hearing the decision that what came next would be traumatized animals.

“It’s murdering, murdering healthy animals that have been 35 years on this planet,” she said.

“They are prehistoric animals that have survived millions of years, but they won’t survive the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.”

Conservative MP Scott Anderson, whose riding covers the B.C. farm, told reporters in Ottawa that he was disappointed with the result.

“I think it goes to underscore the structural need for change within the CFIA.”

B.C. Agriculture and Food Minister Lana Popham called it a “very challenging situation,” while deferring to the CFIA.

“My heart goes out to all the farmers who are currently responding to outbreaks of avian influenza on their farms in British Columbia,” she said, referring to a recent spate of infections. “We respect the decision of the courts and the authority of the CFIA who lead the investigation and response to all avian influenza outbreaks.”

Opponents of the cull waged a campaign on social media and elsewhere. They staged “Ostrichfest” concerts at the farm, where performers included convoy protest organizer Tamara Lich.

Bilinski told the crowd of supporters on Thursday that the cull order is “totally ridiculous.”

“They won’t listen to the science. They know God damn well that those birds have the strongest antibodies out there right now and they’re destroying them. I’m afraid there’s — in my opinion — there’s no justice left.”

He said the CFIA didn’t test any of the surviving birds “because (officials) know they don’t have the virus, they’re loaded with antibodies.”

Animal Justice, a group that advocates for animal legal rights, issued an open letter to the CFIA on the eve of the ruling, saying it was “incumbent” on the agency to conduct new testing before taking the “irreversible step” of culling the birds.

The CFIA warned supporters of the farm that it was “an offence to obstruct or hinder an analyst, inspector or officer” performing duties under the Health of Animals Act and offenders could face up to two years in jail and a fine up to $250,000. 

It said its “stamping out policy,” which mandates complete culls of infected flocks, aims to protect both human and animal health, international trade access for Canada, and the $6.8 billion domestic poultry industry.

Shortly after the announcement, CFIA workers began setting up more equipment and lighting around the hay-bale enclosure. A flock of wild birds was seen in the same ostrich pen on Thursday, an occurrence that the CFIA has said poses avian flu infection risks. 

Pasitney said the farm owners were waiting to hear from their lawyer to see if there was anything more that could be done to save the birds.

“But I promise you, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has just given us so much more, more fight for every farmer out there because under our watch we will never ever let another farmer go through this, and I know that the world isn’t going to either.”

— With files from Jim Bronskill in Ottawa.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2025.