A months-long legal campaign by a Canadian ostrich farm to “save” 300 of its birds from government culling has gone up in feathers.
Food inspectors from British Columbia killed the birds with gunshots last week over protests from the farm’s owners and so-called bird protectionists.
But despite the farm as having been constantly portrayed in the legacy media as being one where ostriches have been allowed to grow old and gray enjoying their grassy surroundings, it’s actually long been something else entirely.
In fact, the farm where the poor, dearly embattled ostriches lived originally raised the birds for slaughter, only recently using them for “medical research.”
So much for at least some of the righteous alleged bird huggers who claimed they were driven by a greater ideal – birds’ rights.
Armed food inspectors went into the baled-hay bird corral Thursday on the Pasitney-family farm, killing the entire corraled brood.
The ostriches were ordered to be culled late last year after two had tested positive for the avian flu following an outbreak that killed 69.
The farm, which had raised the ostriches for slaughter but used them for medical research in recent years, had exhausted all legal options to stop the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s order, with the battle reaching all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.
The top court dismissed the case Thursday, effectively allowing the cull to go ahead.
Lower courts had sided with federal officials, ruling they were acting reasonably within their mandate to protect public health.
Bird flu is nothing to sneeze at.
In fact, Maine, with its history of an historically vibrant poultry industry, both commercial and domestic, has reckoned with it from time to time.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza was even detected in wild birds earlier this year in Cumberland and York counties.
Officials are always concerned about its potential to spread to chicken flocks.
The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife confirmed cases in February in South Portland, Kennebunk, Kittery, Ogunquit, South Berwick and York.
The affected species were Canada geese, red-tailed hawks, and great horned owl.
While there have been no human cases reported in Maine, state officials recommended preventative measures for poultry owners, such as preventing contact with wild birds.
They also advise the public to handle and cook poultry and eggs properly to high enough temperatures to kill off any virus.
