Farm’s Lawyer
Karen Espersen, co-owner of Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, B.C., celebrates with her family after learning that the Supreme Court of Canada granted an interim stay order on Sept. 24, 2025, delaying the culling of the farm’s entire herd of some 400 ostriches. The Canadian Press/Aaron Hemens
9/24/2025
A B.C. ostrich farm facing a cull order has been awarded an emergency interim stay by the Supreme Court of Canada.
The news comes in advance of a planned slaughter of the flock of 399 ostriches at Universal Ostrich Farms by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) due to avian flu concerns.
The Sept. 24 stay suspends enforcement of the CFIA’s “stamping-out policy” until either the farm’s application for leave to appeal is denied or, if granted, until the matter is completely resolved, according to a copy of the stay provided to The Epoch Times by the farm’s lawyer, Umar Sheikh.
Sheikh says that the CFIA will remain on the property, keeping control of the ostriches until a decision is reached, and that the agency has until Oct. 3 to respond to the application.
The farm has faced multiple legal defeats in its attempts to stop the cull, arguing that the birds are now healthy and scientifically valuable. Both the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal have rejected the farm’s arguments.
Katie Pasitney, the daughter of one of the farm’s co-owners, expressed her relief for the reprieve in a Sept. 24 video posted to social media.
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“They’re safe today. I want to thank all of you for your continued love and support,” Pasitney said, addressing supporters. “No threats, no violence. Remember this is not what we stand for here at Universal Ostrich Farms. And I just want to say thank you.”
Meanwhile, fire broke out overnight among a wall of hay bales set up in an ostrich pen by the CFIA on Sept. 23 in advance of the cull. Workers could be seen spraying charred areas of hay with water as smoke billowed from the three-metre-high enclosure on the morning of Sept. 24.
Universal Ostrich Farms co-owner Dave Bilinski told reporters that farm owners would never start a fire nor condone it, and that the farm has its own fire response system because of concerns of peat and grass fires on the property.
The hay bale wall was built on Sept. 23 as the CFIA began preparations to slaughter the flock of ostriches, who have been subject to a cull order since last December when PCR tests showed two cases of avian influenza among 69 birds who died last year.
Tractor trailer trucks moved in with the hay shortly after the Sept. 23 arrests of Pasitney and her mother, the farm’s co-owner Karen Espersen, when the two refused to leave the ostrich pen that day. Both were later released.
RCMP did not immediately respond to requests for details of the overnight fire.
Farm at Centre of Growing Controversy
The farm has generated a large following on social media, with supporters worldwide, and some have gathered at the site itself, near Edgewood in southeastern B.C., to support the owners in their attempts to prevent the destruction of the herd.
The CFIA said that the flock carries a dangerous form of H5N1 and that culling complies with the World Organization for Animal Health’s “stamping out” policy.
“Allowing a domestic poultry flock known to be exposed to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) to remain alive allows a potential source of the virus to persist,” the agency said in a June 25 statement.
Pasitney says the birds have been symptom-free for 253 days and have developed herd immunity.
Supporters, including UBC professor Steven Pelech, argue that the ostriches could yield valuable medical research. High-profile members and allies of the Trump administration have urged Canada to rescind the cull order, including administrator for the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Dr. Mehmet Oz, American billionaire John Catsimatidis, and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
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