Edgewood, British Columbia is normally a sleepy settlement of retirees. Lately, it’s become the front line in a battle between the Canadian government and a coalition of animal rights activists, Christian evangelists and populists who have recruited U.S. health officials Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Mehmet Oz to their cause.
A Canadian Ostrich Culling Sparks an International Storm
It’s all because of Universal Ostrich Farm, located on the edge of this remote 235-person community northeast of Vancouver. The Canadian government is trying to euthanize roughly 400 ostriches that are penned here, after 69 of the flightless birds died in December and January and two tested positive for a variant of H5N1 avian flu virus. The owners of the flock and a group of activists are rallying to stop the cull.
“It is government overreach at its worst, because we have rights as landowners,” said Katie Pasitney, whose mother, Karen Espersen, is co-owner of the farm. The animals have recovered from the outbreak and have developed herd immunity, she said. “These animals, we own them. The government doesn’t.”
Under Canada’s policy for dealing with avian flu outbreaks, officials will kill any commercial flock whose members have been exposed. Canada’s food-inspection agency has said two of the ostriches tested positive for bird flu. It said even if the rest of the herd doesn’t show symptoms, the virus may be dormant and could mutate. Killing the entire herd is the best way to ensure it doesn’t spread.
The world has been lucky that the virus hasn’t spread widely to humans, said Dr. Gregorio Torres, head of the science department of the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health. “We should not leave this virus circulating,” he said.
Although animal-to-human spread is rare, 103 people, mostly Americans, have caught the virus since 2024, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A Canadian Ostrich Culling Sparks an International Storm
The outbreak hit Universal Ostrich Farm in December, when some of the birds started showing symptoms, including bright green feces, fever and “goopy eyes,” said Pasitney.
Universal Ostrich Farm wants the government to retest the surviving animals and study whether they have developed antibodies that could be used to create treatments and vaccines.
A cull would wipe out the farm’s 35-year-old business, and the owners have gone to court to stop the order. They were granted a temporary stay and are awaiting a ruling from Canada’s federal court in Ottawa.
Pasitney and her mother have tried to draw attention to the birds. In one social-media video, Espersen stands in the pen with the 9-foot-tall animals as they peck at her sweater, and calls for supporters to come to the farm to protect the birds.
“If we don’t stand for this, and we don’t pull together and we don’t save all of these beautiful, happy, healthy animals, then what kind of world have we become?” she said.
In February, Pasitney contacted John Catsimatidis, the billionaire owner of New York’s WABC radio station. He has regularly put Pasitney on air to lobby for the animals and sought help from friends like Kennedy, the U.S. Secretary for Health and Human Services, and Oz, Administrator for the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“These are ancient animals, beautiful animals,” said Catsimatidis. He said he’s particularly offended by Canada’s refusal to allow new tests and decries laws that punish with jail times and fines farmers who conduct their own tests on infected animals. “Where are we, Russia?”
Kennedy recently wrote to Canada’s minister of agriculture, offering U.S. aid in studying the surviving animals. In the letter, a copy of which was posted on X, Kennedy wrote that studying the flock could lead to new treatments or vaccines.
Oz has offered to put the birds on his 870-acre ranch in Florida. He said it’s worth studying how the surviving ostriches have lived for more than six months without showing further symptoms. “We have an opportunity to learn that could benefit all of us,” he said.
Mehmet Oz has offered to put the birds on his 870-acre ranch in Florida.
The Canadian government has so far rejected those entreaties.
“We don’t take our public health advice from RFK and Dr. Oz,” said David Eby, the leader of British Columbia’s provincial government.
Toronto-based activist Jim Kerr said he was so moved by the situation that he flew to Edmonton, Alberta and drove nine hours to the farm in a minivan. He arrived at midnight and fell asleep to the low-pitched boom of the ostriches’ calls, which he mistook for the bass of a dance party.
Since then, he has been living on the farm. The owners have even named an ostrich “Jim,” joining others with names like Connor, Ethan, Hayden, Speckles and Spirit.
Supporters camping on the farm have set up patrols to watch for government agents, and are prepared to take nonviolent measures to make things as difficult as possible if the cull goes ahead, said Kerr.
“We just want to save their farm,” said Kerr, who called the government’s cull order an “Orwellian mandate.”
The farm’s owners want the government to retest the surviving animals and study whether they have developed antibodies that could be used to create treatments and vaccines.
The government is dealing with an emotional situation that it doesn’t fully understand, said Umar Sheikh, the lawyer representing Universal Ostrich Farm. “I do think that the reaction that you’re going to see of killing these healthy animals and burying them in a grave ditch is not going to be a pretty sight for anybody.”
Espersen and the co-owner, David Bilinsky, are ready to pen themselves in with the ostriches to ensure they will be there if officials arrive to kill the animals.
Their supporters plan to film and stream the entire process.
“The government needs to know: the world is watching,” said Pasitney.
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