Latest news with #ostriches
CTV News
9 hours ago
- Politics
- CTV News
CTV National News: Battle to save ostriches from cull order ruffling feathers
Watch Judy Trinh reports from Edgewood, B.C., where the fight to save hundreds of ostriches under a cull order is dividing the community.
CTV News
13 hours ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Bird flu: Tensions build in B.C. village as court decision on ostrich cull nears
Hundreds of ostriches in B.C. that are staring down a government death sentence now have a powerful ally. Judy Trinh explains. Hundreds of ostriches in B.C. that are staring down a government death sentence now have a powerful ally. Judy Trinh explains. The frustration inside the Royal Canadian Legion hung as heavy as the suffocating summer heat. Dozens had come to give their side of a global controversy on whether to cull a flock of ostriches that survived a life-threatening virus. More than two dozen people, representing a tenth of the population of the village of Edgewood, B.C., had gathered after word spread that CTV News was visiting. For several weeks, a handful of residents had emailed to voice frustration about the 'unfair' coverage of Universal Ostrich Farm's (UOF) legal battle against a culling order issued by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency after avian flu was detected in its flock last December. The residents said their health and safety concerns have been ignored in the months since the outbreak, while media across the globe from the New York Times to the BBC had turned UOF's ostriches into a cause-célèbre. Yet the residents were unwilling to go on the record, citing fears of harassment and intimidation. UOF had gained high powered support from the Trump administration, an American billionaire and closer to home - the former leaders of the Freedom Convoy such as Pat King and Tamara Lich. Earlier in July, Lich helped organize a fundraising concert for UOF and even took to the stage in Edgewood to sing 'Keep on Rockin' in the Free World.' Canada bird flu news A flock of ostriches in B.C. is on death row after members of the heard contracted avian flu. (Jeff McDonald, CTV News) Testing vs. termination Universal Ostrich spokesperson Katie Pasitney says they're not just trying to get about 400 birds off death row but also standing up for other farmers by challenging a government policy that is inflexible and inhumane. While the CFIA argues the mass euthanization is the most effective way to control the outbreak and prevent the spread of a pathogenic virus that has killed birds, spread to animals and even humans. Pasitney wants to stave off the death sentences by getting the right to test and monitor the ostriches to show they are now healthy. As the legal challenge reached the Federal Court of Appeal in Ottawa, CTV News decided to visit Edgewood to get a better sense of the rising tensions in the village of 235 people. One resident suggested meeting at the legion but insisted she didn't want to be filmed. When CTV News arrived at the blue and white shingled building on Tuesday, 26 people were waiting inside. They were beef producers and retired plumbers, paramedics, bus drivers and barbers. Some were neighbors who lived next to the ostrich farm. The group decided they would all speak out together. Showing their strength in numbers as news cameras rolled. Canada bird flu: Ostrich cull This photo shows 26 Edgewood, B.C. residents who spoke out against the Universal Ostrich Farm's challenge of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's cull order. (Judy Trinh, CTV News) Speaking out in solidarity Lois Wood who baked cookies and squares for the group, raised her hand to speak. She's retired, owns horses and lives alone next to UOF. To get home, Wood has to drive down Langille road, the same rocky lane that goes by the ostrich farm and a cluster of tents and trailers that have popped up across from it. It's a camp of strangers, gathered to protest CFIA's cull order. Some have been in Edgewood for months. Wood says the strangers had previously set up a checkpoint at the turnoff to the road. Other residents said the protesters asked for names and took photos of license plates. 'Edgewood is not about violence,' said Wood, who added he's worried confrontation with protesters will lead to clashes. 'If CFIA comes – they want to do everything they can to stop them.' A few weeks ago, Wood watched as the protesters blocked access to the farm by parking their vehicles horizontally across the lane and cutting off tree branches to lay across the road when a rumour spread that inspectors were moving in. 'They've got nothing to do with this,' said Jim McFarlane. He and his wife Millie are beef farmers and angry that, despite being ordered to quarantine their property, UOF has allowed dozens of protesters on to their property. The couple are worried their cattle could be impacted as the legal fight drags beyond seven months. In Canada, h5N1 has been detected in wild animals like foxes, skunks and raccoons. Pet dogs and cats have also caught the virus. In the U.S., dairy cows have been infected. Even if their cattle are healthy, the McFarlanes say the perception of a lingering disease could impact their income. 'Our (cattle) prices could be knocked down because of the potential of avian flu in cattle, because it can happen,' said Millie. The couple live a ten-minute drive across the village from Universal Ostrich Farm, but worry about fallout. 'It's like living next to Chernobyl,' Millie said referring to the Ukrainian nuclear reactor explosion that released radioactive material into the air. CFIA support Across the room from the McFarlanes, retiree Crystal Michaud chimed in about supporting the government inspectors. 'CFIA is protecting Canadians and Canadian agriculture,' said Michaud. 'UOF is putting us on a slippery slope. They're setting up precedents by overturning Canada's regulations for local, national and international trade. They are putting other people at risk.' Chicken farms in the region have been ordered to tighten their biosecurity measures to guard against the spread of H5N1 virus. Some countries such as Mexico, Japan and Taiwan have banned poultry products from B.C. because of the presence of avian flu. On its website, CFIA states that as long 'as the ostrich farm remains a confirmed infected premises, the entire British Columbia poultry sector is not able to access certain export markets.' B.C. bird flu cases An ostrich looks on at a farm slated for a cull after members of the flock contracted avian flu. Ostrich research According to court documents, UOF stopped selling ostrich meat in 2020. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it entered into an agreement with a Japanese scientist from Kyoto to research antibodies. The work involved injecting the ostriches with COVID-19 antigens to create antibodies in the birds, then extracting the proteins from the eggs. The ostriches are kept in open air pens. There are a few wooden structures on the property and a metal corral shelter with heavy plastic sheeting that was torn and coming off the frame. The Edgewood residents are skeptical UOF facilities are conducive to scientific research. More than a dozen people told CTV News they saw worrisome practices at UOF in the weeks before and shortly after an avian flu outbreak was declared. They described seeing eagles and ravens picking at ostrich carcasses. They shared video of purported ostrich bones littered in the fields. And one neighbor said the farm's owners buried dead ostriches on his property near the creek that runs across the village. 'Hearsay and false' claims After the meeting, CTV visited Universal Ostrich Farm to get a response to the concerns of Edgewood residents. A two-metre-high sign emblazoned with the words 'Stop the Murder of 399 Ostriches' leans against a rusted dump truck marked the entrance of the farm. Protesters playing the role of volunteer security guards led us to the brown house on the property to interview farm spokesperson Katie Pasitney. When confronted with the neighbours' accounts of rotting ostrich carcasses, Pasitney said it was 'hearsay and false,' and insisted the farm was well managed. 'If we really believed that these animals were going to put our whole community at risk, we would have done something about it. She said that complaint could be coming from a 'neighbour who was disgruntled.' To prevent the spread of disease, poultry producers are supposed to report dead birds. CFIA detected H5N1 at the farm last December after receiving an anonymous tip about dead ostriches. And in May, CFIA fined UOF co-owners Dave Bilinski and Karen Esperson $20,000 for failing to cooperate with anti-avian flu bio security measures and not adhering to quarantine orders. Pasitney also dismissed concerns about harassment and intimidation. 'Everybody who has come here to support this farm has been nothing but kind.' She said they've picked people up for rides, helped residents do yard work and supported the local store. Pasitney said UOF's legal challenge is about more than just saving the birds. It's also about countering government overreach 'It's for food security, for better ways … changing policy and fixing fractured and flawed systems and coming together.' But other Edgewater residents like retired bus driver, Jim McKee says he wants the government to protect him from what UOF is doing. 'Government overreach is such a overused cliché. If it isn't the government to regulate and protect – whose job is it?' Meanwhile the CIFA says its continuing with its plan to enforce the cull order. The Federal Court of Appeal is expected to release its decision any day now. Edgewood residents hope the matter will be resolved quickly and peacefully but are also bracing for a possible confrontation if there is a surge in protesters.
CTV News
a day ago
- Politics
- CTV News
CTV National News: Friends in high places trying to save B.C. ostriches
Watch Hundreds of ostriches in B.C. that are staring down a government death sentence now have a powerful ally. Judy Trinh explains.
Gizmodo
17-07-2025
- Health
- Gizmodo
RFK Jr. Begs Canada to Pardon 400 Ostriches So That We Can ‘Understand' Them
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a man whose brain was partially eaten by a worm and who once admitted to keeping jars full of roadkill in his freezer, is begging the Canadian government to spare the lives of 400 ostriches who may have been exposed to bird flu. Kennedy, who also happens to be in charge of America's federal health policy, believes those ostriches could help scientists 'better understand the virus.' The ostriches in question are at the heart of a legal battle in Ottawa, where federal judges are now deciding whether birds belonging to Universal Ostrich Farms, an animal reserve in British Columbia, should be destroyed or allowed to live. An outbreak at the farm in December resulted in the deaths of 69 birds, and, while hundreds of ostriches remain at the farm, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has mandated that those birds be culled to protect the region from a broader outbreak. The farm owners have maintained that this would be unnecessary and amounts to government overreach, The Globe and Mail reports. Kennedy, as well as a gaggle of MAGA influencers and other Trump officials, have repeatedly stepped in to ask that the lives of the sick birds be spared. 'The Secretary has urged Canada not to kill the ostriches but to do further testing to try to better understand the virus,' a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, which Kennedy runs, told Politico. Earlier this year, Kennedy also apparently told Canadian officials that 'significant scientific knowledge may be garnered from following the ostriches in a controlled environment.' The whole let-bird-flu-run-wild thing has been a longstanding obsession with Kennedy. Earlier this year, the HHS czar suggested that U.S. farms with infected fowl 'should consider maybe the possibility of letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune to it.' Kennedy and other like-minded individuals believe that the birds that survive viruses like avian flu may have powerful antibodies that are worth studying, and that could be used to develop protections against future outbreaks. However, many science and health professionals have warned that by letting viruses spread, the government would merely be clearing the way for a broader pandemic and additional (and unnecessary) deaths. Thankfully, Kennedy doesn't have the power to determine bird policy in the U.S. As head of the Department of Health and Human Services, he is only responsible for human health, not bird health (the Department of Agriculture is in charge of that), nor is he capable of making any decisions for the government of Canada. Instead, he has continued to use his public platform to advocate for the controversial notion of allowing viruses to spread. Kennedy has a number of allies in his mission to save the birds. The U.S.'s administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Mehmet Oz (also known by his TV personality, Dr. Oz) has offered to let the birds stay at his 900-acre ranch in Florida. 'We're sticking our necks out for the birds,' Oz told the New York Post in May. 'The Canadians should stop putting their heads in the sand,' he continued, offering another tortured bird metaphor. Kennedy's plea for an executioner's stay is sorta funny, given that the HHS director seems to have never met an animal he wasn't comfortable slaughtering—or whose corpse he wasn't interested in desecrating. In addition to Kennedy's admission that he once committed the chef d'oeuvre of public littering by dumping a bear cub corpse in Central Park, his daughter remembers fondly an incident in which he used a chainsaw to cut the head off of a beached whale. His cousin also claims he used to put baby chicks and mice into a blender to feed his hawks. He has denied eating a dog during a 2010 trip to Korea.
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr wants Canada to pardon 400 ostriches
The Canadian government ordered 400 ostriches to be culled after they were exposed to bird flu, but U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to save the flock. Universal Ostrich Farms in British Columbia was ordered to cull the flightless birds after avian flu was detected last December, CBC reported. A month later, 69 birds died. A court battle has ensued, with the farm owners arguing the ostriches should be kept alive to be studied for potential treatments. Although the court rejected the initial argument, the federal appeals court last month paused the order as it reviewed the matter; the court heard arguments in the case this week. Amid the legal challenges the birds have found an unlikely ally to the south: RFK Jr. 'The Secretary has urged Canada not to kill the ostriches but to do further testing to try to better understand the virus,' a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told Politico. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to save 400 Canadian ostriches from being culled (REUTERS) The health secretary wrote a letter to the president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in May, urging the agency not to go through with plans to eradicate the flock and instead test the birds' antibodies: 'We believe significant scientific knowledge may be garnered from following the ostriches in a controlled environment at the Universal Ostrich Farm.' The cull was ordered as part of a so-called 'stamping-out' policy, used to mitigate the risk of the virus spreading to humans or animals, according to the agency. A screengrab from a video capturing two ostriches resting at the Universal Ostrich Farm, where the Canadian government has ordered for 400 birds to be culled due to avian flu exposure (Katie Pasitney / Facebook) 'Allowing a domestic poultry flock known to be exposed to [bird flu] to remain alive means a potential source of the virus persists. It increases the risk of reassortment or mutation of the virus, particularly with birds raised in open pasture where there is ongoing exposure to wildlife,' the agency explained in a May release after the federal court dismissed the farm owners' applications for judicial review. This week, Kennedy — along with Trump's Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz and billionaire John Catsimatidis — sent letters to Prime Minister Mark Carney pressing his government to alter its policy, Politico reported. Hundreds of birds remain symptom-free months after 69 birds died after being exposed to bird flu, according to the farm owners' lawyer (Katie Pasitney) According to CBC, Katie Pasitney, whose parents own the farm, thanked the trio for their efforts, saying on Tuesday: "I guess we'll just see where that goes from here because we do know that Dr. Oz and RFK are very passionate about this, just as well as John Catsimatidis." In court on Tuesday, Umar Sheikh, a lawyer for the farm owners, similarly argued that the government's policy was too strict, noting that hundreds of ostriches still exhibit no symptoms of avian flu. Only two birds tested positive for the virus before the cull was ordered, he said. "We would ask questions such as why 100 percent destruction needs to occur based on 0.5 percent confirmed infection?" Sheikh asked the court, according to CBC. Aileen Jones, a lawyer for the agency, argued that the court has already determined the 'stamping-out policy is a reasonable policy,' the outlet reported.
