Overview
- The case involves Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, B.C., where roughly 300 birds remain under federal custody after an H5N1 detection last December.
- Lower courts upheld the CFIA’s decisions as reasonable and procedurally fair, and legal observers caution the farm faces long odds at the Supreme Court.
- An internal 2016 CFIA manual released through access-to-information details euthanasia methods for large birds, including restraint on an ostrich’s back for an intracranial injection.
- The CFIA says one ostrich died while in its care on Oct. 4, following RCMP-assisted enforcement actions at the farm in September.
- Public attention has intensified with protests and outside appeals, including letters from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., while an offer from Dr. Mehmet Oz to relocate the flock to Florida was declined.