A flock of 300 ostriches contaminated with avian flu at a B.C. farm has been herded right into a hay bale pen by members of the Canadian Meals Inspection Company after the Supreme Courtroom of Canada dismissed an utility on Thursday from the homeowners of the Common Ostrich Farm to listen to an attraction to avoid wasting their flock.
Round 4 p.m., about 10 vans and SUVs pulled up on the farm in Edgewood, B.C., and males might be seen carrying gadgets into the pen.
Lights have been arrange across the perimeter on high of the hay bales as night time descended on the farm.
Flood lights illuminate a cull enclosure, the place dozens of ostriches have been corralled, close to the Common Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, B.C., on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. Earlier within the day, the Supreme Courtroom of Canada declined to listen to the farm’s attraction towards an order to cull greater than 300 of its ostriches.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Hemens
Flood lights illuminate a cull enclosure, the place dozens of ostriches have been corralled, close to the Common Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, B.C., on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Hemens
Round 6 p.m., gunshots have been heard coming from the farm as supporters gathered close by yelled and prayed for the birds. A World Information digital camera particular person, who has since left the scene, captured the sounds of gunfire and a brand new shift of RCMP officers arriving to safe the world. It stays unclear what the present state of the birds is. All however a couple of protesters have since cleared out.
The court docket unanimously dismissed the applicant’s movement for brand spanking new proof and dismissed the farm proprietor’s attraction, discovering that the Stamping-Out Coverage, the Discover to Dispose and the Exemption Denial have been all affordable in accordance with the relevant case legislation.
“The Canadian Meals Inspection Company (CFIA) will likely be shifting ahead to finish depopulation and disposal measures as licensed by the Well being of Animals Act and guided by the stamping out coverage for extremely pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI),” the CFIA stated in an announcement on Thursday morning.
It isn’t recognized how the ostriches will likely be culled, however “finest practices” are described in a guide that outlines strategies of killing ostriches by breaking their necks, deadly injection, gassing or taking pictures.
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The Common Ostrich Farm challenged the Canadian Meals Inspection Company’s (CFIA) order to cull the flock after an outbreak of avian flu was detected final Dec. 31.
In an replace posted to Fb on Thursday morning, the daughter of the farm’s co-owner, Katie Pasitney, stated, “That is what ache seems like, Canada,” holding again tears.
Karen Espersen, the co-owner of Common Ostrich Farms, is embraced by supporters and her daughter, Katie Pasitney, on the farm in Edgewood, B.C., after the Supreme Courtroom of Canada declined to listen to the farm’s attraction towards an order to cull greater than 300 of its ostriches on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Hemens
Dave Bilinski, the co-owner of Common Ostrich Farms, participates in a bunch prayer in Edgewood, B.C., on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Hemens
“She’s going to lose every part she’s ever cherished for 35 years,” Pasitney added, referring to her mom, the farm’s co-owner, who might be seen crying within the background. “That’s what ache seems like when the federal government fails you.”
The CFIA stated the farm homeowners didn’t report the preliminary circumstances of sickness and deaths when the herd was contaminated.
The CFIA has stated the applying of the avian flu stamping out coverage for this farm has been upheld by the Federal Courtroom of Canada and the Federal Courtroom of Enchantment, and is supported by scientific proof.
As well as, the CFIA says that further laboratory evaluation of the unique samples from the ostriches has decided that present Extremely Pathogenic Avian Influenza an infection within the birds is a “novel reassortment not seen elsewhere in Canada.
“This assortment consists of the D1.3 genotype, which has been related to a human an infection in a poultry employee in Ohio,” the CFIA said.
“Laboratory evaluation additionally discovered this novel reassortment occasion has enhanced the pathogenicity of this explicit H5N1 genotype. Even minimal portions of the virus might be deadly, with a fast time to dying of 4 to 5 days in mice uncovered to even low doses.”
The difficulty has been a contentious one on each side, with the destiny of the birds garnering worldwide consideration.
U.S. billionaire John Catsimatidis personally financed the farm’s authorized protection and drew the eye of U.S. officers after studying of the case earlier this 12 months.
At a press convention on Thursday following the choice announcement, Catsimatidis stated he paid about $35,000 U.S. in authorized charges, which he referred to as “little or no,” saying it wasn’t in regards to the cash.
“I’m asking for sympathy and for widespread sense to prevail, and I assume to the prime minister, whether or not you’re president of the U.S. or prime minister, it goes on these individuals’s shoulders,” he stated.
The CFIA has confronted growing pushback from the farm and its supporters because the case made its means via the courts.
CFIA staff in hazmat fits work together with ostriches close to a cull enclosure positioned by the Common Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, B.C., on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Hemens
The primary choice, a Discover to Dispose, was issued on Dec. 31, 2024, and required the farm homeowners to eliminate all of the ostriches on its farm by Feb.1, 2025, after laboratory testing confirmed an infection of two lifeless ostriches with the H5N1 pressure of extremely pathogenic avian influenza
The second choice, an Exemption Denial dated Jan. 10, 2025, denied the farm proprietor’s request to exempt a minimum of a few of its ostrich flock from destruction.
“The 2 choices have been made below s. 48 of the Well being of Animals Act, S.C. 1990, c. 21, and in accordance with the CFIA’s Stamping-Out Coverage, which is operationalized via the CFIA’s Extremely Pathogenic Avian Influenza 2022 Occasion Response Plan,” the Supreme Courtroom of Canada stated in an announcement.
After 69 birds died of avian flu, the farm’s homeowners argued the surviving ostriches have “herd immunity” and needed them examined.
The Federal Courtroom of Canada stayed the Discover to Dispose, pending willpower of the judicial evaluation utility within the Federal Courtroom, after which a single choose of the Federal Courtroom of Enchantment stayed the choice pending disposition of the farm proprietor’s attraction earlier than the Federal Courtroom of Enchantment.
“The Federal Courtroom of Enchantment unanimously dismissed the applicant’s movement for brand spanking new proof and dismissed the applicant’s attraction, discovering that the Stamping-Out Coverage, the Discover to Dispose and the Exemption Denial have been all affordable in accordance with the relevant case legislation,” the Supreme Courtroom of Canada stated.
The stamping-out coverage is a measure carried out by the World Group for Animal Well being. It mandates that every one animals in a flock are killed, even when avian flu is current in a single hen.
-with recordsdata from The Canadian Press and Alessia Maratta
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