A Federal Court judge has tossed out a challenge that would have stopped the killing of about 400 ostriches on a British Columbia farm that suffered an outbreak of avian flu.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency ordered the cull late last year after the flu outbreak, but the court granted a stay in January pending a judicial review.
The family that owns Universal Ostrich Farm in Edgewood in southeastern B.C. has said the birds should be saved because they have developed herd immunity and could contribute to the fight against avian flu.
However, the court ruled Tuesday that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s decisions were both reasonable and procedurally fair, with the judge saying “courts generally stay out of scientific debates.”
“Courts must also respect the demonstrated scientific and technical expertise of administrative agencies,” the judgment says. “When Parliament leaves technical or scientific assessments to specialized administrative bodies, it signals that those bodies, not the courts, are best positioned to make judgments on complex, expertise-driven matters.”
The owners of the farm say the birds that survived the flu have recovered and are happy and healthy.
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But Federal Court Justice Russel Zinn says the disposal notice and denial of the farm’s exemption happened in December 2024 and January 2025, and the court can’t consider evidence that wasn’t available to it when those decisions were made.
He said the court “would be faulting decision-makers for lacking a crystal ball.”
“This court cannot consider ‘new’ evidence, such as the current health status of the ostriches, recent test results or updated scientific developments,” the ruling says.
More than 8.7 million birds have been culled in B.C. at hundreds of farms, most of them commercial, since the first outbreak of a highly contagious form of the avian flu occurred in the spring of 2022.
Peace River North legislator Jordan Kealy, who supported the farmers’ attempt to halt the cull, said he was “heartbroken” by the decision.
“Right now we don’t know when the CFIA might come after their animals,” Kealy said in a Facebook live video. “I think this is an example of overreach that shouldn’t happen. My heart goes out to the family.”
