Karen Espersen, right, the co-owner of Universal Ostrich Farms, speaks with supporters with her daughter, Katie Pasitney, at the farm in Edgewood, B.C., on Monday.AARON HEMENS/The Canadian Press
More than a dozen RCMP cruisers converged on a B.C. ostrich farm just before dawn on Monday to execute search warrants, as the owners made a last-ditch effort to prevent the cull of hundreds of birds whose fate has attracted international attention.
Staff Sergeant Kris Clark, a spokesperson for the Mounties in B.C. who was on the scene at the farm in the Kootenay town of Edgewood, told The Globe that officers were there to assist the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which had obtained a warrant to enter the farm beginning at 6 a.m. that day.
He said late Monday afternoon that he expected the CFIA could take days to finish, but that he could not say what exactly the agency was doing.
“So when they’re done – whatever they need to do – then we’ll be able to release the property,” Staff Sgt. Clark said.
The CFIA, the federal agency responsible for food safety, did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
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The CFIA intends to cull the 400 birds in order to prevent the spread of avian flu, but the owners of the farm have been waging a court and social media fight to save the animals.
Test results on two of the birds last December indicated they were infected with avian flu and 69 of them died.
Earlier this year, lawyers for the family argued in Federal Court the ostriches were no longer infected, and that the cull was unwarranted. They also argued that there was scientific value in studying the birds who had survived the deadly disease.
Just before 6:30 a.m. Monday, video taken by Katie Pasitney, whose mother is a co-owner of the farm, showed a convoy of vehicles arriving at the farm. The video shows the ostriches fleeing.
Videos taken at the farm throughout the day show a tense scene with some supporters yelling at police.
Police tape surrounds an area where ostriches are penned in at the Universal Ostrich Farms property in Edgewood, B.C., on Monday.AARON HEMENS/The Canadian Press
In one, a person wearing a CFIA jacket is shown ordering Ms. Pasitney to leave the property.
“The warrant authorizes use of force to remove you. And I don’t want to do that. So we need you to leave as soon as possible.”
Neither Ms. Pasitney nor the family’s lawyer, Umar Sheikh, could be reached for comment on Monday afternoon. It is not clear whether the family complied with the CFIA order to leave the property.
The farm had called on supporters to gather at the property this weekend ahead of the expected cull, though the federal agency would not provide specifics on when it was going to happen.
In a social-media post, Ms. Pasitney asks the farm’s followers in a video to please “stop the massacre” from happening.
“This is your day. RCMP, to serve and protect. You don’t serve and kill innocent animals that are unarmed, that don’t have a voice,” she said.
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In a later video, Ms. Pasitney said her family has been informed that there are three search warrants and said the family does not want violence.
She also alleged, in a video posted to social media Monday, that RCMP drones had sent her herd into a frenzy and led to one running into a fence and injuring itself. At least one was shown with what appeared to be a broken leg. Staff Sgt. Clark said he had not heard of any injured birds, but acknowledged the Mounties began flying their drones higher up in the air after the farmers complained.
Two B.C. rental companies pulled their trucks and equipment from the farm after a public pressure campaign.
Representatives with Clearway Car and Truck Rentals, an Abbotsford rental agency, drove to Vernon late Sunday night to retrieve several white waste trucks they had rented to the CFIA.
“We are officially in possession of our Clearway Trucks and taking them back to Abbotsford,” the company announced late Sunday night on its Facebook page.
The farm had called on supporters to gather at the property this weekend ahead of the expected cull.AARON HEMENS/The Canadian Press
In an earlier post, the company had said it had no prior knowledge that its vehicles would be used in the ostrich cull, adding that it had ordered the CFIA to return their trucks.
A representative of Sunbelt Rentals of Vernon told The Globe that it had picked up its scissor-lift from the Edgewood farm on Monday. The company said it didn’t know what the equipment was going to be used for when it rented it out but it was on its way back to Vernon.
The fate of the ostriches has attracted the attention of supporters inside and outside the country, including MPs and MLAs, right-wing figures such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and animal-rights activists.
The CFIA said the case involved a unique and more lethal strain of the avian influenza virus. The birds have not been tested since December.
In court documents, the agency argued it doesn’t know how likely it is that the ostriches at the farm remain infected, or will become infected.
Earlier this month a Federal Court of Appeal judge ruled the cull must be allowed to proceed, denying a request from the farm for another stay while it applies to be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada.
Justice Gerald Heckman said the farm has not established that its final proposed appeal “raises a serious or arguable issue.”