OTTAWA, ON – The Supreme Court of Canada said Thursday it will not hear an appeal of a federal agency's mandate to slaughter hundreds of ostriches at a farm in British Columbia.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued a cull order on Dec. 31 last year following the discovery bird flu flash.
Owners of the farm in the southern inland community of Edgewood, British Columbia, are challenging the order in the courts, arguing that the surviving ostriches show no signs of disease and should be spared.
The Food Inspection Agency says ostriches that appear healthy can still spread the disease.
The agency has custody of the birds, and the farm's owners claim they were illegally removed from the property by the agency and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The cull seemed inevitable, but the Supreme Court stayed the case until it decided whether to hear the farm's case.
US Secretary of Health Robert Kennedy Jr. sent a letter to the president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, urging him to reconsider the issue of killing the birds. Separately, Dr. Mehmet Ozformer television personality and current administrator of Health Care Centers & Medicaid Services offered to rehome the animals from its Florida ranch.
