Vancouver’s Lucas Robinson made a 575-kilometre trip east to the small community of Edgewood, B.C., with steaks, hamburgers, watermelon and his dog.
The trucker said he felt a responsibility to protect the nearly 400 ostriches owned by Universal Ostrich Farms that have been ordered culled after a lengthy court battle that brought international attention to the small community in B.C.’s southern Interior.
“I don’t know all the ins and outs. That’s partly why I’m going up there. But, you know, they’re trying to study their antibodies and the eggs and all sorts of things that the big pharma and other interests (groups) don’t want happening,” Robinson said Friday in Kelowna, B.C., on a stop in his journey
“There’s more going on, and they’ll cull those birds over my dead body.”
The Federal Court of Appeal on Thursday rejected the farm’s bid to prevent the cull which was originally ordered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency last December after two dead birds at the property tested positive for H5N1 avian flu. Several dozen of the ostriches have since died.
But the farm’s lawyer said Friday they are still holding out hope that Canada’s top court will hear the case, and a spokesperson has urged supporters to converge on the farm to protect the birds.
The cull order has drawn opposition from U.S. officials, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is now the administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It also led to protesters camping out at the farm earlier this summer.
A total of 69 birds died at the farm in December and January, and while the farmers say the flock is now healthy, the CFIA says the cull is necessary because exposed flocks create an opportunity for the virus to mutate.
Lawyer Umar Sheikh said in an interview that he was working with Universal Ostrich Farms on an application to the Supreme Court of Canada for another stay of the cull, pending an application seeking leave to appeal.
He acknowledged the threshold to have a case heard by the top court is high and said it was too soon to discuss what arguments they intend to make.
“Generally, it’s a very high threshold. You have to seek leave and the leave application, in and of itself, is fairly significant in terms of a piece of work,” he said.
The Supreme Court of Canada only hears cases that it considers to be of public importance and to have national significance.
Federal court denies appeal from ostrich farm to prevent culling of flock infected with avian flu
Statistics in its latest annual report show the Court received 526 applications for permission to appeal in 2024 and only 32 applications were granted that year.
Supporters of the farm such as Robinson meanwhile say they are heading to the property to show support.
Farm spokeswoman Katie Pasitney, whose mother co-owns the property, had called for supporters to go to the property and “sit with animals that need protection” from the cull.
She has said Canada needs to “rise up” against the move, but encouraged protesters to be “peaceful only.”
In an interview Friday, Pasitney said she was not asking people to physically stop the cull from happening.
“Right now we are asking people to come and support us as a family and a farm fighting for Canadians,” she said.
“We are asking for the co-operation of Canadian Food Inspection Agency, for them to work with us, not against us. We are not a commercial poultry flock. We are a research flock. They are flightless animals quarantined by their geographical location of 135 kilometres away from a major city,” she added.
“We have not posed any threat, and we continue to just stand by that, that these animals need the right and deserve the right to be tested.”
Posts on a social media group administered by Pasitney showed people saying they were booking flights or driving to the property.
Others suggested a convoy or appealing to officials in the United States to have the birds moved there.
However, a spokesman for Federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel said Friday she had not been in touch with any U.S. counterparts.
Robinson, who said he grew up around a horse stable in Ladner, said he had a “very loving connection” with animals.
“And these ostriches are iconic, majestic birds … these things live decades, and they have personalities,” he said.
Pasitney said she is feeling both hope and grief.
“We have pride in our ostriches for the resilience and sorrow that their survival means so little to those in power and the bureaucracy that is controlling the country,” she said.
The CFIA has said there are “ongoing risks” to animal and human health as well as export market access for Canadian goods.
It says in a statement about the Court of Appeal ruling that it won’t discuss operational plans, but in a May 30 update that remains on its website, it says it “continues planning for humane depopulation with veterinary oversight at the infected premises.”
