Appeal Court denies stay of ostrich cull, leaving B.C. farm without legal protection

By Canadian Press on September 12, 2025.

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OTTAWA — The Federal Court of Appeal has denied an application for another stay order to delay a cull of about 400 ostriches at a British Columbia farm that was hit by an outbreak of avian influenza, removing a legal block against the slaughter proceeding.

Katie Pasitney, the spokeswoman for Universal Ostrich Farms, said Friday’s ruling means an interim stay granted last weekend to give the farm in Edgewood, B.C., time to make legal submissions “no longer exists.”

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency ordered the slaughter on Dec. 31, 2024, during an outbreak of H5N1 avian flu that killed 69 ostriches.

Pasitney, whose mother co-owns the farm, said in a video posted to Facebook that they were “trying to figure out the next steps” while facing an “open cull order.”

“They made very clear that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency could continue to plan the execution of all of these animals that are living here, breathing healthy, with heartbeats,” she said of the court ruling.

“And when those heartbeats are gone, those heartbeats don’t come back.”

The farm has been fighting the cull order for months, but lost its case in Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal, and had been seeking another stay to mount a challenge at the Supreme Court of Canada.

The CFIA has said there are ongoing risks posed by the flock and the conditions in which the ostriches are kept, while the farmers argue the birds are healthy and scientifically valuable, having acquired “herd immunity.”

The farm’s situation has drawn attention from opponents of government overreach and the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump, whose health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has called for the birds to be spared and studied.

Supporters of the farm have been camping out at the property, staging music concerts and other events to draw attention to the case, and on Friday, Pasitney called again for supporters to converge.

“We need cameras, and we need bodies, and we ask you to come here in peace and no violence,” she said.

The Appeal Court said that in denying the stay application, Justice Gerald Heckman disregarded affidavits filed by the farm in response to submissions by the CFIA, in line with what it said were court rules.

The CFIA submissions this week included an affidavit by Canada’s deputy chief veterinarian saying new analysis had confirmed the ostriches were sickened by a unique and more lethal strain of the avian influenza virus.

Dr. Cathy Furness with the CFIA said in the submission that further investigation of samples taken from the birds revealed that the “novel reassortment” of the virus at the farm had “enhanced the pathogenicity” of the strain.

The strain was “among the most virulent” tested at Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory and even low doses killed mice within a few days, the affidavit said.

But Furness said the CFIA didn’t know how likely it was that the ostriches at the farm remain infected, or would become infected.