{"id":278255,"date":"2025-11-08T00:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T00:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/278255\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T00:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T00:27:08","slug":"professional-marksmen-kill-flu-exposed-ostrich-herd-in-canada-ending-legal-saga-that-attracted-rfk-jr-s-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/278255\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Professional marksmen\u2019 kill flu-exposed ostrich herd in Canada, ending legal saga that attracted RFK Jr.\u2019s attention"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Friday that it used \u201cprofessional marksmen\u201d to kill a flu-exposed ostrich herd in British Columbia<\/a>, bringing to an end a nearly year-long legal saga that had attracted attention from conservatives in the United States, including US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAs part of its disease response policy, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has culled the ostrich population on a farm in Edgewood, British Columbia,\u201d the CFIA said in a statement Friday.\n <\/p>\n

\n The farm in question, Universal Ostrich Farms, will remain under quarantine.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAfter consulting with experts experienced in managing ostrich disease outbreaks,\u201d the statement added, \u201cthe CFIA concluded that the most appropriate and humane option was to use professional marksmen in a controlled on-farm setting.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Universal Ostrich Farms had launched a legal battle against the CFIA\u2019s decision to cull the herd, attracting the attention of Kennedy, who urged the Canadian government in May to reconsider.\n <\/p>\n

\n Kennedy had argued the animals exposed to flu may hold potential for disease research, but the agency said there was no evidence for this and yesterday the Canadian Supreme Court declined to weigh in on the case, removing the last legal roadblock to prevent their culling.\n <\/p>\n

\n Katie Pasitney, the spokesperson for Universal Ostrich Farms, told CNN that the culling was \u201ctraumatizing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere\u2019s nothing professional or humane about putting almost 330 birds in a square pen in the dark of night and shooting at them,\u201d Pasitney said on Friday.\n <\/p>\n

\n The CFIA had ordered the culling after detecting highly pathogenic avian influenza<\/a> on the farm in December 2024.\n <\/p>\n

\n In a statement published Thursday, shortly after the Canadian Supreme Court dismissed the case, the CFIA cited its \u201cstamping out\u201d policy, in which exposed or infected animals are killed en masse to prevent further outbreaks.\n <\/p>\n

\n The farm\u2019s owners disputed the CFIA\u2019s conclusions, arguing that the ostriches that survived the flu might offer disease-fighting antibodies for research \u2013 an idea that Kennedy endorsed in his letter to the CFIA in May after meeting with Canadian officials.\n <\/p>\n

\n The ostriches, Kennedy wrote<\/a>, offered the \u201cpotential to study both antibody levels and cellular immunity to help further our scientific understanding of the virus and the immune physiologic response.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The agency, however, called<\/a> the farm\u2019s research claims \u201cunsubstantiated,\u201d saying that the CFIA had \u201cnot received any evidence of research activities\u201d on the ostrich farm, nor \u201cany research to show the flock of ostriches currently under quarantine has a unique capacity to produce eggs with antibodies.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The CFIA eventually took full control of the farm and its animals in September. Supporters have frequently gathered near the farm to protest. In its statement Friday, the CFIA warned demonstrators not to interfere with its operations and reiterated that drone flights over the property are illegal.\n <\/p>\n

\n Throughout the controversy, Canadian officials have cited the need to prevent an outbreak that might damage the country\u2019s nearly $7 billion poultry industry<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n There are more cases of avian flu in British Columbia than any other Canadian province, according to CFIA\u2019s statistics<\/a>, with an estimated 11,439,000 birds affected as of October 28.\n <\/p>\n

\n Neighboring Alberta, the next most-affected province, has an estimated 2 million birds impacted.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Friday that it used \u201cprofessional marksmen\u201d to kill a flu-exposed ostrich herd…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-278255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}