{"id":164639,"date":"2025-09-23T20:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T20:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/164639\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T20:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T20:48:12","slug":"2-people-arrested-as-ostrich-cull-looms-at-b-c-farm-on-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/164639\/","title":{"rendered":"2 people arrested as ostrich cull looms at B.C. farm on Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

An ostrich flock that has garnered international attention in the Kootenays has yet to be culled, but it is likely to happen soon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Staff Sgt. Kris Clark with BC RCMP confirmed that two people were arrested on Tuesday afternoon, but would not confirm names.<\/p>\n

The RCMP moved into the ostrich enclosure, where Katie Pasitney and her mother, Karen Esperson, had been staying overnight.<\/p>\n

There were originally three people in the enclosure; however, Dave Bilinski, Esperson\u2019s partner, left of his own accord shortly before the arrests took place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason that I come out this way rather than get arrested in there is we needed a lot of stuff out of our trailer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed to get this vehicle out, so the only way is if I come up peacefully, was that I got the truck out and all the stuff out, our trailer computers and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Police and officials with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) arrived at the Universal Ostrich Farm in Edgewood on Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Dozens of protesters met them in support of the birds and the farm\u2019s owner.<\/p>\n

RCMP conducted a search warrant and set up a perimeter around the property on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe they know there\u2019s no virus in these birds now,\u201d Bilinski said on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how nature works. We\u2019ve got the animal with the strongest immune system of any animal in the world, is the ostrich.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWest Kootenay ostrich farm on edge amid imminent ostrich cull\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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Pasitney, whose mother is a co-owner of Universal Ostrich Farms, posted a video to her Facebook page Monday evening showing a CFIA official telling the farmers they would be allowed to stay in the birds\u2019 pen overnight.<\/p>\n

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However, the unnamed man says the CFIA has control of the property and there would be \u201cconsequences\u201d if the farmers did not leave voluntarily overnight or on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The farmers have repeatedly called for testing to determine the birds\u2019 status, and Pasitney told the media Monday that the farmers\u2019 lawyer was filing paperwork in an attempt to have the case heard by the Supreme Court of Canada.<\/p>\n

The farm lost bids to stop the cull in Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal, and last week was denied another stay of the cull order while it prepared to apply for leave to go to the Supreme Court of Canada, an application that must be made by Oct. 3.<\/p>\n

\u2014 with files from The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ostrich flock that has garnered international attention in the Kootenays has yet to be culled, but it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44,52204,990],"class_list":{"0":"post-164639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-ostrich-cull","12":"tag-ostrich-farm"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}