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Western Standard · Jarryd Jäger · Feb 18, 2025
The Canadian Shooting Sports Association has slammed the Canadian Food Inspection Agency following revelations that the federal agency considered hiring hunters to kill 400 ostriches on a family farm in Edgewood, British Columbia.
The fate of the flock at Universal Ostrich Farm is uncertain as the battle between the owners and the federal government makes its way through the courts.
According to the CSSA, an internal CFIA discussion leaked to the farm’s owners Karen Espersen and Dave Bilinski showed that the agency asked “Can we get hunters to kill these birds for us?”
The move came after Justice Michael Battista ruled that Ottawa couldn’t force Espersen and Bilinski to kill the birds themselves until a judicial review was carried out. In an appeal, the federal government questioned whether the ruling also applied to the CFIA or outside actors.
“No, CFIA, we will not do your dirty work for you,” the CSSA wrote in a statement. “Hunters are ethical men and women who humanely harvest wildlife to feed their families. They are not contract killers for government agencies.”
The group argued that the CFIA “has no evidence that the 400 ostriches at Universal Ostrich Farms are sick,” explaining that agents only “performed PCR tests on two dead birds after 16 hours — not by conducting an autopsy or taking tissue samples, the ‘gold standard’ in testing — and used PCR tests to rationalize killing this entire flock of majestic birds.”
The CSSA called the cull order a “prime example of government overreach, bad science, and bureaucratic negligence,” adding that “instead of executing a flawed mass cull, CFIA should adopt modern disease management strategies and respect farmers’ rights.”
They urged anyone considering killing ostriches on the CFIA’s behalf to think twice, noting that “there are serious criminal penalties for injuring, endangering or killing animals or birds, as well as for discharging firearms where that activity is prohibited.”
The CFIA had originally 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.
