The owners of a British Columbia ostrich farm whose flock is subject to a cull order must leave Tuesday or face arrest by police, according to videos taken at the scene.
RCMP were called in to help support the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and to serve a search warrant at the Edgewood, B.C., property on Monday, where the owners of Universal Ostrich Farms have been fighting a cull order prompted by an outbreak of avian influenza that killed 69 of their ostriches.
In a video posted to Facebook Tuesday morning by Katie Pasitney, whose mother is a co-owner of the farm, a man wearing a jacket labeled “RCMP” tells Pasitney she will be arrested if she doesn’t leave.
“You have to leave the property…. The other option is, my compatriots here have to come in and arrest you,” the man says.
The video is filmed through the ostriches’ pen and shows CFIA officials and multiple police officers on the other side of its wire fence.
In a separate video posted by Pasitney, a man, who identifies himself as a CFIA inspector, tells the farmers they would be allowed to stay in the birds’ pen overnight Monday.
However, the unnamed man says the CFIA has control of the property and there would be “consequences” if the farmers did not leave voluntarily overnight or on Tuesday.
RCMP said in a statement that the CFIA is the lead agency in the matter.
“Our primary role is to keep the peace and enforce the law while CFIA agents conduct their business,” RCMP said.
Supporters of the farm who were at the site Monday were yelling at the officers present, with one witness yelling at police to “have a heart” and telling them that “the world is watching.”
Rod Giffen lives near the farm and counts himself among its supporters.
He said it’s not right to kill the birds without allowing for testing to determine whether they still carry the virus.
Giffen said he would recommend a visit to the ostrich farm to anyone coming to the area.
“They’re so cool, right?” he said. “What they do, the noises they make, the dances they do and everything. Yeah, they’re pretty interesting animals.”
The farmers have brought their fight to save about 400 surviving ostriches to multiple levels of court, arguing they are now healthy and scientifically valuable, while the CFIA has said the birds were infected with a more lethal strain of the virus.
The federal agency has said in court documents that its policies do not provide for additional testing.
It said the chances the birds are infected or will become infected is unknown “due to gaps in the available science regarding how long immunity to [avian influenza] viruses may last in an individual ostrich,” as well as a lack of information about how many ostriches were infected during the original outbreak.
The CFIA said a source of infection or reinfection with avian influenza can remain in the environment long after individual infected birds have recovered
The farmers have repeatedly called for testing to determine the birds’ status, and Pasitney told the media Monday that the farmers’ lawyer was filing paperwork in an attempt to have the case heard by the Supreme Court of Canada.
