A family-owned ostrich farm in British Columbia has been destroyed after government agents shot and killed its entire flock of over 300 birds.

The cull was ordered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) due to a bird flu outbreak detected nearly a year ago, despite the farm owners' insistence the surviving birds were healthy.

The farm's legal battle to save the birds, which drew support from U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., ended when the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear their final appeal.

The CFIA conducted the cull using a professional marksman, blocking airspace and shielding the area with tarps to prevent observation and recording.

The incident has become a flashpoint for debates on government overreach, property rights, and the erosion of public trust in health agencies following pandemic-era policies.

In a dramatic and controversial end to a 10-month legal and political battle, agents of the Canadian government descended on a family-owned ostrich farm in Edgewood, British Columbia, and shot dead its entire flock of over 300 birds. The action, carried out by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) under the cover of darkness and shielded from public view, was the execution of a cull order purportedly to stop the spread of avian influenza. For the farm's owners and their supporters, it was the destruction of a livelihood and a chilling symbol of state power overriding individual rights in the name of public health.

The bureaucratic decree versus a family’s plea

The conflict began after an outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) was identified at Universal Ostrich Farms in late 2024, which reportedly killed 69 birds. The CFIA issued a depopulation order for the entire remaining flock, a standard policy for containing the disease. However, the farm’s owners, Karen Espersen and her daughter Katie Pasitney, fiercely contested the order. They argued that the surviving ostriches showed no signs of illness, had developed natural immunity, and represented a valuable genetic resource for scientific research into disease resilience. Their pleas for further testing or relocation were consistently denied. "This is a plea out to the world. Stop this massacre from happening," Pasitney had begged in a final, unheeded appeal.

A legal battle reaches a dead end

The family exhausted every legal avenue to save their animals. Their fight escalated all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, which on November 7, 2025, declined to hear their final appeal, effectively giving the CFIA the green light to proceed. The case attracted high-profile support from south of the border. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., along with other prominent American doctors, sent a letter to the CFIA urging reconsideration, arguing that the healthy birds could provide critical insights into immune longevity. Billionaire John Catsimatidis even offered his Florida ranch as a sanctuary. These efforts were ultimately dismissed by Canadian authorities.

The execution and the aftermath

Hours after the Supreme Court's decision, CFIA vehicles rolled onto the property. The agency, citing "weeks of threats," established a significant security perimeter with police support. They blocked airspace to prevent drone surveillance and erected blue tarps and black sheeting around the holding pens to obscure the view. A professional marksman then proceeded to cull the entire flock. Witnesses described listening to hours of intermittent gunfire. Farm supporter Janice Tyndall, 72, stated she listened for a couple of hours before she “couldn’t stomach it anymore” and left. In a Facebook post, a devastated Katie Pasitney wrote that her family was “broken and can’t imagine the suffering last night. We can’t get out of bed.” Unlike chickens, ostriches can live for up to 70 years in captivity, and many of the birds had been with the family for decades.

A legacy of eroded trust

The incident has become a potent political symbol, highlighting a deep and growing distrust of government health agencies. Critics see the heavy-handed tactics—the refusal to test the allegedly healthy birds, the secretive execution of the cull, and the destruction of a family business—as an extension of the contentious mandates and policies enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the CFIA maintains its actions were necessary to protect the $6.8 billion poultry industry and prevent viral mutation (despite the farm's remote location), skeptics question the proportionality and scientific justification for destroying a seemingly healthy herd. The farmers are eligible for compensation of up to $3,000 (Canadian) per bird, a sum that does little to mend a shattered legacy or restore faith in the institutions tasked with protecting both animal health and the rights of citizens.

A precedent of power

The story of Universal Ostrich Farms concludes not with a judicial ruling on the merits of the case, but with the sound of gunshots and the silence of a vacant pen. It serves as a stark reminder of the immense power wielded by government agencies and the limited recourse available to ordinary citizens who find themselves in their crosshairs. For a world still grappling with the aftermath of global pandemic policies, the destruction of a family farm over the objections of its owners and international experts raises profound and unsettling questions about where the line between legitimate public health protection and unacceptable government overreach is drawn, and who gets to decide.

Sources for this article include:

ArmageddonProse.Substack.com

ABCnews.go.com

NYPost.com