VICTORIA — A spokesperson for Universal Ostrich Farms says the farm will ask the Supreme Court of Canada to stop the culling of 400 ostriches hit by avian flu, but it is not clear yet whether Canada’s highest court will hear the case.
Katie Pasitney said the farm remains hopeful that it will get another chance to make its case, after Federal Court of Appeal Justice Gerald Heckman ruled Friday the cull of the animals must be allowed to proceed.
“So we would be asking the Supreme Court to hear all of the evidence,” she said. “The health of the animals is imperative to what we’re fighting for.”
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency had first ordered the slaughter on Dec. 31, 2024, during an outbreak of H5N1 avian flu that killed 69 ostriches.
The farm has been fighting the cull order for months, but lost its case in both Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal, and now faces what Pasitney has called an “open cull order” following this latest ruling.
Speaking Saturday morning, Pasitney says about 20 people are currently gathered outside the farm in Edgewood, B.C. to await future developments.
“Everybody’s just offering tons of love and support to one another,” Pasitney said. “Everybody’s here in unity and strength for standing up for something that we all believe in — these animals shouldn’t die.”
Pasitney said the farm plans to file its application to the Supreme Court “immediately,” but Heckman has also said in his ruling that the farm has failed to establish reasonably arguable grounds for a further appeal, which must be filled by Oct. 3.
Heckman said in his ruling that the farm has not established that the harm it will suffer outweighs the harm to the public interest if a stay were granted.
“The CFIA must now be allowed to discharge the mandate conferred on it by Parliament and implement its lawful policy,” the ruling read.
Heckman said the farm had received “full and meaningful opportunity” to challenge the lawfulness of the cull, but also expressed sympathy for the farm.
“Judges don’t have hearts of stone,” he said.
CFIA has said that the ostriches and the conditions in which they are kept pose ongoing risks, while the farmer has argued that the birds are healthy and scientifically valuable, having acquired “herd immunity.”
The case of the Ostrich farm has drawn attention from opponents of government overreach and the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump, whose health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has called for the birds to be spared and studied.
Pasitney said that option is still available, adding that she has not yet heard from either CFIA following Friday’s ruling or from the federal Ministry of Agriculture and Agri-Food, following her petition.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2025.
Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press
