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Western Standard · Jarryd Jäger · Feb 12, 2025
The federal government has appealed a court ruling that temporarily halted the culling of 400 ostriches on a family farm in British Columbia.
Lawyers for the Department of Justice acting on behalf of Canadian Food Inspection Agency also asked for an expedited hearing of the judicial review and clarification of the injunction order issued by Justice Michael Battista.
The owners of Universal Ostrich Farm, Karen Espersen and Dave Bilinski, have vowed to keep fighting.
“It is obvious, in addition to the emotional assault, the deliberate infliction of psychological pain and suffering, bankrupting us by destroying our business, the CFIA is now amping up their legal assault against us in the hope we will finally break,” spokesperson Katie Pasitney said.
In their appeal, the government argued that Battista “erred in law and in principle, and/or seriously misapprehended the facts in “finding that irreparable harm … would flow to the Respondent if an injunction were not granted.”
The government also suggested that the justice made a mistake by “erroneously concluding that not issuing the injunction would render the underlying application moot,” as well as by suggesting that the farm had “a range of options under the Health of Animals Act to address its concerns regarding public safety.” Lawyers for the DOJ held on to their belief that “there were no options other than disposal of the ostriches,”
Battista was also accused of “failing to account for or seriously misapprehending the facts concerning public interest factors that overwhelmingly favoured not issuing an injunction.”
The CFIA ordered the birds killed by February 1 after two of their deceased herd-mates tested positive for H5N1, better known as avian flu. It was only on January 31 that the emergency injunction was filed, calling for a judicial review to be completed before any animal was slaughtered.
The government has called into question whether the injunction only applies to the family, or if the CFIA can cull the birds themselves.
The saga began in December, when an avian flu outbreak was declared at the farm. Espersen said she believed the disease was brought to their property by a flock of migrating ducks, who took shelter in the barn.
Initially, the farm saw as many as four ostriches dying per day, but eventually the deaths petered out. Pasitney said this was evidence that the birds had acquired herd immunity.
Nonetheless, when the CFIA got wind of the outbreak in December, they sent a team out to investigate, and after testing two carcasses, determined that the entire herd had to be culled. This was incomprehensible to the owners and their families, who have developed strong relationships with each individual bird.
