CFIA says B.C. ostrich cull will proceed after high court decides not to hear appeal

EDGEWOOD, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says it will move forward with “complete depopulation” of hundreds of ostriches at a British Columbia farm after the owners lost a bid to have their case against the cull heard by the Supreme Court of Canada.

The agency said in a statement on Thursday that it has 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.”

The High Court’s decision not to hear a final appeal by the owners of Universal Ostrich Farms in the southern Interior community of Edgewood, B.C., comes more than 10 months after the CFIA issued the cull order following detection of an avian flu outbreak.

Thursday’s ruling removed any legal impediment to commencing the killings, after previous rulings against the farm in Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal.

Supporters at the farm formed a prayer circle as co-owner Dave Bilinski delivered news of the high court’s decision.

“Maybe a miracle will happen yet,” he said, as one protester called the CFIA “criminals,” and said she would leave Canada, while another muttered that the decision was “disgusting.”

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

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

The farm’s owners have argued the surviving ostriches show no signs of illness and should be spared, saying they have acquired “herd immunity” and have scientific value, while the inspection agency says 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 farm’s supporters lined the highway overlooking the ostrich pen and jeered at CFIA workers in protective biohazard suits on Thursday. 

“You should be ashamed of yourself. You should go in there and let them cull you,” shouted protester Jeff Gaudry over a loudspeaker.

The agency has not said how it will kill the ostriches, but in a statement 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.”

Katie Pasitney, spokeswoman and daughter of the farm’s co-owner Karen Espersen, said the farm and 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,” she said. 

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 the media after hearing the decision that what comes 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.”

On social media the protesters have long argued the cull order is an example of government overreach, likening their protest movement to the “Freedom Convoy” that paralyzed downtown Ottawa in early 2022.

They staged “Ostrichfest” music concerts where performers included convoy protest organizer Tamara Lich.

They also drew attention from across the border, with U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sending a letter to the president of the CFIA earlier this year asking him to reconsider the cull.

Bilinski told the crowd of supporters on Thursday that the cull order by the CFIA 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 birds “because they 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 who is performing duties or functions” 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 flood lighting around a large hay-bale enclosure near the back of the ostrich pen that obstructs a ground-level view of what is happening inside. 

Ostriches were visible between the bale pen and an outer construction fence that was put in place when the inspection agency moved onto the farm in September. 

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 they 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.