The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has executed a warrant at a B.C. ostrich farm whose owners’ months-long efforts to fight cull orders have involved courtroom wrangling, protests and the interest of officials in Donald Trump’s White House.
RCMP and disposal trucks converged Monday at Universal Ostrich Farms near Edgewood, B.C., where about 400 birds have been ordered culled due to the risks of avian flu.
Video streamed by farm spokesperson Katie Pasitney shows men in uniforms speaking to people behind the farm’s fence.
“I’m going to ask you to leave the property now,” said someone wearing a jacket with a CFIA insignia. “The warrant authorizes use of force to remove you. And I don’t want to do that. So we need you to leave as soon as possible.”
The uniformed man outlined how the warrant applies to different parts of the property. Supporters were told to leave the area housing the ostriches, but they have been allowed to stay in the surrounding area.
A CBC News reporter at the farm described a tense scene with protesters yelling at police.
An RCMP statement says police support is being given to the lead agency, the CFIA, which has been “granted lawful authority to execute a search warrant.”
Earlier in the day, Pasitney said in a video posted on Facebook that a convoy of police vehicles and waste disposal trucks rolled up Monday outside the property in Edgewood, located about 360 kilometres east of Vancouver.
The video posted Monday shows the vehicles driving along the road, heading toward the farm.
WATCH | RCMP attend B.C. ostrich farm facing cull:
RCMP have gathered in Edgewood, B.C., to support the Canadian Food Inspection Agency as it executes a search warrant at the Universal Ostrich farm, where approximately 400 birds have been ordered killed due to avian flu concerns.
Supporters out in droves
Pasitney asked the farm’s followers in the video to please “stop the massacre” from happening. She also addressed police directly.
“This is your day, RCMP, to serve and protect. You don’t serve and kill innocent animals that are unarmed, that don’t have a voice,” she said.
Brenda Bernhardt, a retired veterinarian, was among those on hand Monday.
She explained that she has been at the farm for almost two weeks, motivated by “compassion, freedom, [and a] willingness to stand up against … clearly a tyrannical overreach from the government.”
“It’s pretty clear there’s a dark agenda going on here,” Bernhardt said. “I just needed to come… to be a witness, to stand up, to be a peaceful observer, hopefully not having to document the slaughter of innocent, sentient lives.”
In a later video, Pasitney, whose mother co-owns the farm, said they have been informed that there are “three search warrants” and said the family does not want violence.
On Friday, the farm said they had received information from a source indicating the CFIA would be set to cull their birds at some point in the near future.
Pasitney told CBC News Monday morning that she hoped to “bide time.”
“So we are allowed as a Canadian citizen our due judicial process which is applying for a leave of Supreme Court, having an emergency stay order while we seek that leave of Supreme Court,” she said. “That has been submitted, the [attorney general] has accepted that, but we are just waiting for the court to file it.
“So, in the meantime, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is just dead set on killing these animals.”
Fate of birds draws White House interest
The fight between the farm and the federal agency dates back to the outbreak of avian flu in December that would go on to kill 69 ostriches.
The CFIA says the ostriches must be killed in compliance with international guidelines over how to handle cases of avian flu at commercial poultry operations, including ostrich farms.
Universal Ostrich, which used to sell their birds for meat but say they have since pivoted to raising them for use in scientific research, have repeatedly claimed that, because most of the birds are alive and healthy, they should be allowed to live.
They have taken their case up to Canada’s highest courts, which have ruled repeatedly that the cull order is lawful and in line with guidelines that grant the CFIA authority over scientific decisions in relation to avian flu.
The court rulings have also attracted the attention of dozens of supporters who have been gathering at the farm, as well as U.S. White House officials Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who have urged the Canadian government to allow the ostriches to live, with Oz offering them sanctuary at his properties in the United States.
The CFIA has repeatedly said they would not provide advance notice of when the cull would take place.
However, a B.C. vehicle rental company said over the weekend that their fleet had been contracted by the CFIA.
After receiving multiple negative reviews on Google and other review platforms, Clearway Trucks issued a statement to social media and its website stating that it had “no prior knowledge” that its trucks might be used in the potential cull and that they had issued a “formal demand” that their trucks be returned.
Late Sunday night, they posted to Facebook that they had repossessed the trucks.
