3 MLAs are supporting a B.C. farming family whose 400 ostriches are to be culled
Birds were ordered to be culled after an avian flu outbreak, but family says they are healthy
A member of an ostrich farming family held back tears Thursday as she called on the provincial government to help stop the cull of their 400 birds.
Katie Pasitney, spokesperson for Universal Ostrich Farm owned by her parents, said she is hopeful that her meeting with provincial officials, including B.C.'s Agriculture Minister Lana Popham, will lead to changes that would save the birds because of their potential significance to the poultry industry.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency ordered their cull in late 2024 after an avian flu outbreak, but a Federal Court granted them a stay of execution in late January pending a judicial review.
The family and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency now await a ruling from a Federal Court judge on the fate of the animals. A decision is expected to come early next week.
Pasitney said the animals living on her parents' farm in Edgewood, B.C., are "healthy" and "happy" now and pose no risk. She said the birds could contribute to the fight against avian flu because they have developed herd immunity.
"They are a living research laboratory," she said before meeting with Popham.
Pasitney said after the meeting with the minister that she remains hopeful that her plea to save the birds on the basis of their potential contribution to research will pay off.
She said the provincial officials made no commitments.
"They listened … and they are going to absorb all the information," she said.
Pasitney said the birds are her family's livelihood and having to kill them would be catastrophic.
"Some of these animals have personalities," she said, speaking with reporters before her meeting with the minister.
Pasitney has been receiving support from three Independents members of the legislature, and Dallas Brodie and Tara Armstrong even visually underscored their support by holding up ostrich eggs during a news conference with reporters.
Peace River North MLA Jordan Kealy acknowledged that the federal government will decide the fate of the birds, but said the provincial government can help secure a stay of execution by lobbying for an exemption from the culling rules.
"I think you have to look at every avenue to advocate, and right now, when it came to trying to reach out and contact the (inspection agency), I had difficulties," Kealy said.
The fate of the birds had also came up in the legislature when Kealy introduced Pasitney as a representative of the farm, which he described as an "innovative and research-driven operation" that has spent the past three year developing practices based on antibodies to protect against diseases and viruses, including H5N1.
"This farm is not used for food consumption and purely research-based," he said.
Responding to questions from Kealy, Popham said avian influenza can have a heavy emotional and economic toll, but also pointed to its dangers.
"If it mutates into a widespread human illness, the impacts would be catastrophic," she said. "That is the context for why … CFIA is taking the steps they take."
More than 8.7 million birds have been culled in B.C. at 236 farms, most of them commercial, since the first outbreak of a highly contagious form of the avian flu broke out in the spring of 2022.