© Laura Gutschke/Reporter-News / USA TODAY NETWORK
(Edgewood, B.C.) – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has doubled down on it’s plan to cull nearly 400 ostriches living in southeastern B.C. over fears of avian flu. The local regional district passed a motion earlier this week saying it will not accept the birds’ carcasses at local landfills after they are killed until the CFIA conducts more tests on the birds and makes those results public.
LISTEN: Cats and Cosby caught up with ostrich farmer Katie Pastiney, who says she was targeted — along with her mother — by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Katie Pastiney: Who is Guilty of Trying to Kill the Ostriches in British Columbia? | 05-19-25
The owners of Universal Ostrich Farm had been fighting the cull order in court but a federal judge recently ruled that the CFIA can proceed. Katie Pastiney, spokesperson for the farm owned by her parents, said she’s disappointed with the CFIA’s decision and wants the agency to approve testing the birds. “We can prove to you we pose no public health and safety risk,” she said in an interview Sunday.
More than 200 people showed up on Saturday to oppose the cull, and the plan at this moment is to stay “peaceful, loving, and lawful.”
