Tribunal upholds $10K fine for B.C. ostrich farm over failure to report sick birds

The Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal has upheld a $10,000 fine handed to the British Columbia ostrich farm whose flock of more than 300 birds was culled last fall, nearly 11 months after the confirmation of an avian influenza outbreak.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued the fine alleging Universal Ostrich Farms violated the Health of Animals Act by failing to report sick and dying birds on the property in southeastern B.C. in December 2024.

The tribunal’s decision says the CFIA was instead alerted by an anonymous caller saying they believed the ostriches were sick with avian flu on Dec. 28 that year.

The decision posted online and dated Dec. 11, 2025, says the farm requested the tribunal review the CFIA’s violation notice, arguing it “did its best” given the owners thought the ostriches had a non-reportable disease and they had attempted to reach at least two veterinarians who were not available at the time.

But tribunal chair Emily Crocco found the farm, co-owned by Karen Espersen and Dave Bilinski, was negligent in its duty under the federal legislation.

The decision says the farmers purport to be experts in ostrich health and welfare, and knew their birds were sick, “yet they failed to exercise the same level of adherence to the (law) that a reasonably prudent person would have done in a similar situation.”

The CFIA operates a “Sick Bird Line” that anyone can call in order to report a diseased bird to a veterinary inspector, Crocco wrote.

“All the (farm) had to do was immediately make a call to that phone number and inform them of any of the facts indicating the potential presence of a reportable disease.”

In doing so, the farm would have met its obligations under federal law, the decision says.

On the same day the CFIA received the anonymous tip, it says veterinarian Dr. Erica Robertson called Bilinski to tell him what the agency had heard.

In her notes from the conversation, the tribunal decision says Bilinski indicated the weather had turned “bad” about three weeks earlier and birds began falling ill.

He said about five per cent of the flock of more than 400 birds had died over three weeks.

The decision says that in an affidavit to the tribunal dated Oct. 1, 2025, Bilinski stated the farmers did not think the ostriches had avian influenza because their symptoms were the same as when the flock had had an infection called “pseudomonas” in 2020.

The symptoms in December 2024 included watery eyes, white nodules at the back of the ostriches’ mouths and “coughing up white chunks,” as well as depression and lethargy, it says. There was also higher mortality among younger birds.

The tribunal decision says “it is a fact” that watery eyes, depression and high mortality among young ostriches are symptoms of avian flu.

On Dec. 30, 2024, the CFIA took swabs from two recently deceased ostriches and the next day, test results came back positive for the virus. The cull was ordered 41 minutes later.

The tribunal decision adds there was no evidence the veterinarians the farmers tried to reach earlier that month were veterinary inspectors as defined by the Health of Animals Act.

Crocco notes in the decision that she did not agree with the CFIA’s assertion that the farm’s violation in failing to report sick ostriches was intentional.

But it was “nevertheless, certainly negligent,” she wrote.

Crocco says she found the violation “could have led to serious or widespread harm to human or animal health.”

The cull order prompted the farmers to launch a battle in court and on social media in an effort to save the birds.

Marksmen used rifles to carry out the slaughter in drenching rain on Nov. 6, after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled it would not hear the case.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 16, 2026.

The Canadian Press