{"id":463314,"date":"2026-02-09T07:14:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T07:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/463314\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T07:14:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T07:14:44","slug":"the-b-c-ostrich-saga-has-come-home-to-roost-with-a-big-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/463314\/","title":{"rendered":"The B.C. ostrich saga has come home to roost with a big bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Ostriches are corralled inside of a cull enclosure near the Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, B.C. in November, 2025.AARON HEMENS\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

$6,810,846<\/a>. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s roughly how much the seemingly endless B.C. ostrich saga has cost the federal government (read: taxpayers) so far. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the scofflaws whose actions have triggered this avalanche of public spending have been fined a mere $10,000<\/a> for flagrantly violating the law. <\/p>\n

The reflex is to blame government for profligate spending. But to be fair, they were responding to the foot-dragging obstinance of science-denying malcontents. <\/p>\n

Andr\u00e9 Picard: The ostrich saga was for the birds<\/a><\/p>\n

The story began on Dec. 28, 2024, when an anonymous caller alerted the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that there appeared to be ostriches infected with avian influenza at a farm in Edgewood, B.C. (The CFIA operates a Sick Bird Line<\/a>, 1-800-442-2342. Farmers are legally obligated to do so because H5N1 is a reportable disease.) <\/p>\n

Veterinary inspectors, wearing white hazmat suits, visited Universal Ostrich Farms Inc. on Dec. 30, and swabbed two dead birds. (A total of 69 birds died in the outbreak.) Because H5N1 was detected, a cull was ordered immediately. <\/p>\n

Canada has a \u201cstamping out\u201d policy that requires poultry flocks to be eliminated in their entirety<\/a> if even a single case is detected. The U.S. and a number of other countries have similar rules because avian influenza is a novel virus, posing a risk not only to poultry, but wild birds and mammals, including humans. <\/p>\n

The farm\u2019s owners requested an exemption from the law, saying their ostriches had \u201csignificant genetic value,\u201d claiming that the surviving birds were immune. <\/p>\n

CFIA rejected the exemption on Jan. 10, 2025, and the farm owners filed an appeal in B.C. Supreme Court, which granted a temporary reprieve. <\/p>\n

Then the media started taking interest in the quirky dispute. The Globe and Mail<\/a> ran its first large feature on the doomed ostriches on Jan. 30 of last year. <\/p>\n

Supporters also started flocking to the farm, decrying \u201cgovernment overreach\u201d and pleading for the birds to be spared. Right-wing Rebel News made the ostrich farm its cause c\u00e9l\u00e8bre of 2025. High-profile U.S. politicians such as Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Mehmet Oz also weighed in, calling for the birds to be saved.<\/p>\n

As the anger directed at the CFIA grew, so too did the costs. The government agency had to step up its cybersecurity and its office security as a result of threats, spending $35,300 and $124,241, respectively.<\/p>\n

CFIA staff was dispatched to the farm to ensure the quarantine was respected. It\u2019s not clear how many people were present, but as the case wended through the courts, costs mounted: salaries, car rentals, travel, makeshift offices, portable washroom rentals, and more. They also had to feed the condemned birds: $13,780 on feed alone. <\/p>\n

The CFIA bill came in at $1.6-million<\/a>, according to documents released at the request of Conservative MP Scott Anderson. <\/p>\n

Protests also grew in vehemence. Neighbours and local businesses were threatened. The RCMP eventually dispatched officers around the clock. The policing bill alone topped $3.8-million \u2013 and overtime claims haven\u2019t been processed yet.<\/p>\n

On Nov. 6, 2025, the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear the case, meaning all legal channels had been exhausted, and the cull could finally proceed. Legal costs totalled $1.38-million on the government\u2019s side alone. (The ostrich farm had help with its legal bills from U.S. billionaire John Catsimatidis<\/a>.) <\/p>\n

The cull proved costly too. CFIA purchased $220,923 worth of straw, used to create walls of bales to corral the ostriches before they were shot by professional marksmen. \u201cDestruction\u201d of the birds cost $82,496, and disposal of the corpses another $166,087. <\/p>\n

Mr. Anderson, a Conservative MP who visited the ostrich farm several times, railed against the spending, which amounted to about $20,000 a bird.<\/p>\n

But CFIA has culled 17.2 million<\/a> birds since December, 2021, at a fraction of the cost. <\/p>\n

The only reason costs were so outrageous was the stubborn refusal of the farm owners to respect the cull order, which the courts ruled was procedurally fair. CFIA and the justice department had a duty to uphold the law. <\/p>\n

The huge RCMP presence, for its part, was necessary owing to the noxious behaviour of protesters. <\/p>\n

The important number that doesn\u2019t get mentioned is what the cost of inaction would have been: the threat to Canada\u2019s $6.8-billion poultry industry. Failure to cull an infected flock could be a violation of trade agreements, and put $1-billion in exports at risk.<\/p>\n

In that context, $6.8-million was money well spent. Doing the right thing, no matter how unpopular, often comes at a steep price. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Ostriches are corralled inside of a cull enclosure near the Universal Ostrich Farms…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,66,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-463314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-science","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463314","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=463314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}