CFIA employees in hazmat suits mind ostriches near the Universal Ostrich Farms site in Edgewood, B.C., on Thursday.AARON HEMENS/The Canadian Press
The federal food-safety agency is moving ahead with its controversial cull of more than 300 ostriches in B.C. after the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed a last-ditch effort by farmers who have been waging a lengthy legal battle after a bird-flu outbreak in their flock.
The court released a brief notice of rejection Thursday morning and, as is its practice, did not explain the reasoning behind why it declined to hear an appeal sought by Universal Ostrich Farms Inc., near Edgewood, B.C.
The farmers and dozens of their supporters at the site reacted to the ruling with both sadness and rage. Many of them lined the highway near the farm to get a better view of the ostriches and a nearby makeshift enclosure of large hay bales constructed nearly a month ago by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and its subcontractors.
Later, around dusk, shots rang out from inside that makeshift pen, with the nearby protesters screaming “Stop!” and “Murderers!”
Numerous gunshots rang out late Thursday at Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, B.C., where the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says it is moving ahead with the cull of hundreds of the birds.
The Canadian Press
RCMP spokesperson Staff Sgt. Kris Clark, one of dozens of Mounties on site at the farm to keep the peace, said Thursday evening that he couldn’t disclose the provenance of the gunfire when asked if it was from the CFIA, but said police are not investigating any reports of gunfire.
Earlier in the day, he said the large number of Mounties were needed to secure the perimeter of the farm until the federal agency has carried out its work.
Risk that B.C. ostriches could spread flu is low, but cull is still warranted, experts say
Between CFIA staff first arriving at the end of September and the cull being postponed until the Supreme Court’s decision Thursday, he said supporters of the farmers have threatened federal employees during the tense legal saga.
“There’s concern for their safety,” he said during a phone interview from the farm.
Staff Sgt. Clark also confirmed that the day the CFIA arrived, police arrested a protester camping at the farm for allegedly assaulting a neighbour and attempting to burn down her house.
The CFIA’s execution order from last New Year’s Eve has long been opposed by the farmers and their online army of supporters, which includes well-known figures such as U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former television personality Mehmet Oz, now the administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The CFIA issued a statement shortly after Thursday’s ruling stating that the agency “will be moving forward to complete depopulation and disposal measures,” according to its policy of eradicating any flock found to have had the highly pathogenic avian flu.
The agency began investigating the outbreak last December after an anonymous tip. Test results on two of the ostriches last December indicated that they were infected with avian flu, and 69 of them eventually died.
The federal regulator has always maintained that while the birds have not been tested since December, they must be killed because its “stamping-out” policy aims to protect Canada’s $6.8-billion poultry sector from wider outbreaks of this unique and lethal strain of the avian influenza virus.
The farmers have countered that their ostriches have all recovered from last year’s outbreak and pose a negligible risk to nearby wild animals or other livestock.
Katie Pasitney, a spokeswoman for the farm who was briefly arrested there last month with her mother, Karen Espersen, who is a co-owner of the operation, posted videos of herself on social media throughout Thursday lamenting the decision and calling on Ottawa to stop the cull.
“Today is a day that we stand strong in Canadian history and we rise up. And if our leaders won’t rise up, we find new ones,” she said in one video where she called to the ostriches in a nearby pen separated by temporary fencing and police tape.
On Wednesday, John Catsimatidis, the New York grocery-store billionaire and long-time friend of U.S. President Donald Trump, predicted a rejection by the Supreme Court would enrage the American government.
Supporters of Universal Ostrich Farms say news that the cull will go ahead is a painful moment in history.
The Canadian Press
Mr. Catsimatidis, who told The Globe in a phone interview that he and Republican business magnate Andy Sabin have donated $50,000 to the farmer’s legal bills, said he did not understand why the CFIA could not take up the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s standing offer to do further testing on the ostriches to confirm that they are no longer contagious.
Mark Mancini, a professor of law at Thompson Rivers University who has been following the controversial cull order closely, said transferring that responsibility would be impossible because the U.S. FDA is not authorized by Parliament to conduct such work.
Mr. Mancini also said the Supreme Court of Canada is typically deferential to governmental policy decisions and would have had to determine that the case was of national importance to have granted the farmers leave to appeal.
The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association has said that it acknowledges this is a distressing and emotional situation, but it is in support of the cull amid the “unprecedented” global bird-flu outbreak.
That sentiment echoed what a chorus of veterinary science experts recently told The Globe. They said the chance that these giant flightless fowl could still spread the bird flu contracted nearly a year ago is very low but remains high enough to continue with a federal cull.
With a report from The Canadian Press