RCMP escort CFIA to execute search warrant on B.C. ostrich farm

EDGEWOOD, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA – RCMP and disposal trucks have converged on a British Columbia ostrich farm that has been at the centre of a fight to stop a cull order of 400 birds after an outbreak of avian flu.

A statement from police says they have been requested to attend the Universal Ostrich Farms by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency “who was granted lawful authority to execute a search warrant.”

“Our primary role is to keep the peace and enforce the law while CFIA agents conduct their business,” the statement says.

A spokeswoman for the farm, Katie Pasitney, says in a video posted on Facebook that a convoy of police vehicles and waste disposal trucks rolled up Monday outside the property in Edgewood, B.C.

Pasitney asks the farm’s followers in the video to please “stop the massacre” from happening. 

“This is your day, RCMP, to serve and protect. You don’t serve and kill innocent animals that are unarmed, that don’t have a voice,” she says.

In a later video Pasitney, whose mother co-owns the farm, says they have been informed that there are “three search warrants” and that the family does not want violence.

Video posted on social media from people at the farm show someone being taken away in handcuffs.

Pasitney says in another video that it’s unclear what happened but they invited the police in to take one person out.

Advocates at the farm had called on supporters to gather at the property this weekend ahead of the expected cull, though the federal agency would not provide specifics on when it was going to take place.

The fight between the farm and the federal agency dates back to the outbreak of avian flu in December that would go on to kill 69 ostriches.

The CFIA then ordered the entire flock of nearly 400 remaining birds to be destroyed on the farm, located about 570 kilometres east of Vancouver in southeastern B.C. 

What followed was months of court arguments, with the farm insisting the birds are now healthy, that they have scientific value, and should be saved,

However, the CFIA said the birds were infected with a unique and more lethal strain of the avian influenza virus.

In court documents, the agency argued it doesn’t know how likely it is that the ostriches at the farm remain infected, or will become infected.

Earlier this month, a Federal Court of Appeal judge ruled the cull must be allowed to proceed, denying a request from the farm for another stay while it applies to be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada.

The judge said the farm has not established that its final proposed appeal “raises a serious or arguable issue.”

At the time, Pasitney said the farm still intended to apply to Canada’s highest court. They have until Oct. 3 to make that application. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 22, 2025.