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28m ago

CFIA, Backed by RCMP, Executes Search Warrants at B.C. Ostrich Farm Facing Avian Flu Cull

Court rulings upholding the cull have triggered on-site enforcement under warrant with police support.

Police tape surrounds an area where ostriches are penned in at the Universal Ostrich Farms property in Edgewood, B.C., on Monday.
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Overview

  • RCMP say they are assisting the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which has lawful authority to execute a search warrant at Universal Ostrich Farm in Edgewood, B.C.
  • Operations began early Monday after a warrant allowing entry from 6 a.m., with a convoy of police and waste-disposal vehicles arriving at the property.
  • About 400 ostriches are subject to a cull order tied to a December H5N1 outbreak that killed 69 birds, with CFIA warning of asymptomatic shedding and mutation risks and noting the flock has not been retested since December.
  • Video from the site shows at least one person taken away in handcuffs as CFIA personnel ordered people to leave under the warrant, and the agency has not disclosed operational timing, which police indicated could take days.
  • The farm lost bids to pause the cull in Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal and plans to seek Supreme Court leave by Oct. 3, as supporters push relocation or study and two B.C. rental firms withdrew equipment rented to CFIA.