Interim stay of cull order turns despair to joy on B.C. ostrich farm

The mother and daughter at the centre of a movement to save their flock of 400 ostriches from a cull order had just finished a sombre and tearful prayer alongside supporters at their farm in British Columbia, when they heard the Supreme Court of Canada had granted a last-minute stay, sparing the birds for now.

The crowd erupted in loud cheers, with several saying God had heard their prayer.

Read more:

• The Supreme Court of Canada grants stay on ostrich cull, farm’s lawyer says
• Five things to know about the B.C. ostrich farm and pending cull
• A timeline of the fight to save a flock of ostriches in a B.C. farm

“They’re safe today! They live today!” said Katie Pasitney, whose mother is a co-owner of the farm near the tiny community of Edgewood in southeastern B.C.

“We have time,” she said, embracing her mother, Karen Espersen.

“Getting arrested was worth it,” she told Espersen.

RCMP officers — called in by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to help keep the peace during the cull — had arrested the pair on Tuesday after they refused to leave the ostriches’ enclosure the previous night.

They were allowed to return home, but are prohibited from entering the birds’ pen, which remains under the control of the CFIA.

The inspection agency ordered the cull last December, when avian influenza was first detected in the flock. The outbreak went on to kill nearly 70 birds.

Officials moved in to the farm on Monday, escorted by police.

Pasitney said Wednesday that their lawyer, Umar Sheikh, called to deliver the news of the interim stay, which spares the birds while the Supreme Court mulls an application for leave to appeal a lower court decision that allowed the cull to proceed.

The high court’s document, supplied by Sheikh, says the order stays the enforcement of the CFIA’s “stamping-out policy” until the application for leave to appeal is dismissed or, if leave to appeal is granted, until the case is disposed of.

“God is good,” Espersen and Pasitney said after Sheikh’s call.

Sheikh said the CFIA will stay at the farm, maintaining custody of the ostriches until the rulings are made, and the agency has until Oct. 3 to reply to the application.

After those filings, he said the farm has two days to provide a final response before the court makes a decision “subject to the court’s timing and discretion.”

Espersen said she felt numb, but overjoyed by the news.

“I just want to run in and hug my birds, but I can’t right now,” she told reporters.

“It’s the power of prayer,” she said, adding “this was too close.”

A wall of hay bales used to corral the flock had been constructed at the farm on Tuesday, and by Wednesday morning it had been charred by fire.

Parts of the roughly three-metre high wall were still smouldering and workers could be seen spraying the blackened areas with water as smoke billowed into the sky.

Ostriches were visible behind the burned wall, grazing and moving around, while several RCMP vehicles were stationed in front of the enclosure.

The other co-owner of Universal Ostrich Farms, Dave Bilinski, said earlier Wednesday that the farmers would never start or condone a fire.

The farm has generated a large following on social media, with supporters worldwide, and some have gathered at the property this week to support the owners in their fight to prevent the destruction of the herd.

The farm’s lawyer has argued in court that the surviving birds are now healthy and scientifically valuable. Both the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal rejected the arguments and the Appeal Court later refused to grant a stay of the order to cull the animals.

The CFIA has said in court documents that the ostriches were infected with a more lethal strain of the avian influenza virus, and a source of infection or reinfection can remain in the environment long after individual birds have recovered.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2025.