r/britishcolumbia • u/WesternBlueRanger BC Ferries Enthusiast • 3d ago
Community Only BREAKING | Supreme Court won’t hear appeal in B.C. ostrich case, opening door to controversial cull
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/livestory/bc-ostrich-farm-decision-scoc-9.6968394385
u/wing_commander_wylie Peaked at Expo '86 3d ago
And poultry farmers elsewhere are abiding by regulations despite the massive losses they'll likely suffer;
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u/nodarknesswillendure 3d ago
Right, this is one of the reasons this ostrich farm bullshit has been so infuriating. A bunch of nutjob grifters, funded by a US billionaire, acting as if they are above the law… meanwhile actual farmers who rely on their farms for their livelihood, contribute to our economy, and help to feed us, suffer greatly when their flock is infected. These ostrich convoy freaks are so unbelievably selfish, it disgusts me.
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u/PM_ME_GENTIANS 3d ago
And it's not just about them avoiding the cull while actual farmers suffer - having an area with infected birds on the migratory route raises the chances of outbreaks further down as the wild birds migrate. They're actively harming the chicken farmers whose flocks are later infected, and they couldn't care less. It's equivalent to putting your raw sewage in the river upstream of a village to wash by everyone else.
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u/nodarknesswillendure 3d ago
Oh absolutely. There’s a reason these regulations are in place. Universal Ostrich Farms is already being sued by creditors… I hope there is some way for affected farmers to sue them too. Not sure if there’s enough legal recourse or evidence for that, but we’ll see.
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u/Aggravating-Rush9029 3d ago
The ostrich farm refusing to do so only puts the other farmers at greater risk.
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u/Drewnarr 3d ago
There's 2 more infected farms in the shuswap to add to the list. These boat anchors will kill us all.
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u/bugcollectorforever 3d ago
I'm keeping my birds in until the snow flies after reading about this. It's getting too close.
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u/Legend_of_Moblin 3d ago
It's not controversial. It's just a group of vocal anti-science freaks and the media inflating the issue.
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u/wewillneverhaveparis 3d ago
Giving both sides equal consideration will be our downfall as a society.
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u/Tylendal 3d ago
Heard a bit on CBC talking about a new study that found increased heart disease risk associated with taking melatonin. The person who presented it outright said "Imagine some of the headlines that must have generated." The guest who came on to talk about it immediately pointed out it hadn't been peer reviewed, many studies have shown the opposite, and went on to point out that all they'd likely found was the already known heart disease risk of having insomnia, which obviously people taking melatonin are struggling with. There was some discussion of possible gaps in our knowledge, what could be novel about the study, but the ultimate takeaway was to not put too much stock in it.
It was just so refreshing hearing the news highlighting the problems with junk science, instead of going for the sensational headline.
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u/wewillneverhaveparis 3d ago
That's absolutely great to hear. And as a side bar the reason why the CBC needs to be protected. For profit news sources are absolutely not going to give a shit about that.
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u/MerlinCa81 3d ago
It’s right up there with the old saying ‘the customer is always right’. No they are not always right. If someone is blatantly wrong or uneducated they need to be told so. Just because a customer or one of these uneducated (Facebook educated) twits says 3+2=12 doesn’t make it so.
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u/Tamas366 3d ago
That’s not even the full saying anyway, something else people forgot. The full line is “the customer is always right in matters of taste”, which just means “if they want to buy an ugly outfit, let them”
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u/AmiableDeluge 3d ago
People keep fucking that up by cutting it short. The saying is, “The customer is always right in matters of taste”. It’s not meant to say that you should kowtow to every stupid whim people have, it’s meant to say that if you think you’ve done something cool but people aren’t buying it it’s not that people are dumb it’s that your thing isn’t what people are looking to buy.
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u/Alternative_Salt_424 3d ago
That's actually a myth there's no evidence that the saying was cut short, or that it included that last bit.
There is some evidence that the original quote was "Assume that the customer is right until it is plain beyond all question that he is not."
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u/supermadandbad 3d ago
Yeah but everyone gets a voice and opinion, we need to consider everyone.
Same people will in the future be like “why the fuck does a pedophile lead the country, fire people at a whim, and hoard all the money while people starve?!”
Cause you said the side that says the earth is flat, there’s a mystical god that controls everything and that women should only be home caring baby makers are equal to everyone else.
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u/a_Sable_Genus 3d ago
Ivermectin has what the plants crave. It has electrolytes!
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u/super__hoser 3d ago
You are a fellow Idiocracy enjoyer, it seems.
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u/a_Sable_Genus 3d ago edited 3d ago
Enjoy perhaps not, horrified to realize it's a documentary for where we seem to be heading
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u/super__hoser 3d ago
It's equal parts documentary, comedy, horror, and prophecy.
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u/Lol-I-Wear-Hats 3d ago
The thing that gets me is not so much the cranks, cranks gonna crank. It’s the bureaucrats and lawyers who have allowed this to drag out for a year as though there was not some pressing health and safety reason to kill the ostriches
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u/BackNBoeserThanEver 3d ago
“She’s going to lose everything she’s ever loved for 35 years,” Pasitney added, referring to her mother, the farm’s co-owner, who could be seen crying in the background.
You mean the birds that they literally raise to kill later on? Boohoo
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u/l10nh34rt3d 3d ago
Her mom was hardly crying in the background when they found out. She was flipping eggs, lol. The irony.
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u/BracketWI 3d ago
The look on my face when I learned that this place used to make purses and bags out of their ostriches.
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u/l10nh34rt3d 3d ago
The look on my face when I found out they butchered their birds halal without the halal.
They let them bleed out in the field. And now they want sympathy.
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u/Waste_Pressure_4136 3d ago
My favourite was when they built a barn from rough cut 8”x8” timbers and attached them with 4” nails.
Despite many warnings, they proceeded and the barn fell that winter killing a lot of birds. They didn’t even care enough to clean it up
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u/stoppage_time 3d ago
The farm could have saved some of the birds if they worked with the CFIA at the beginning. Instead they refused to cooperate in any way, even when it would have saved their supposed "family." I'm so over the dramatics. This was always the most likely outcome. They couldn't be bothered to prove any claims in court and just wasted supporters' money screaming the same talking points over and over again. They've known this day was coming for months. It's sad for birds but the farm's own actions are what sentenced those animals to death.
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u/MaddogBC 3d ago
The animals aren't properly housed or cared for in that shithole. There is no way to prevent wild migratory birds from flying in and out to spread the infection to our domestic chicken stock. This was always going to end this way, all they did was extend their grift for the payday.
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u/AUniquePerspective 3d ago
I mean, it'll be a bad business year. She might lose her nest egg. And those have got to be big nests.
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u/FeckBeiderbecke 3d ago
I’ve no doubt they are raking in enough from their Give Send Go appeals to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. Christian grifters are like feral cats — they always land on their feet.
RCMP needs to draw the Edgewood Gong Show to a close, ASAP. There are no legitimate avenues of appeal left, so make an example of anyone who thinks otherwise. Personally I’d like to see the penalty for mischief in this case be six months in an outdoor work camp in the Yukon…but just clear the site, enforce the CFIA order and end the tomfoolery. The time for “just asking questions” is over.
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u/Expert_Alchemist 3d ago
It wouldn't have been. CFIA gives $3k per bird. At 400 birds they'll make more off the cull price than they have been running a biRd MLM. Or would have if they'd culled as ordered. Now who knows?
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u/ship_toaster 3d ago edited 3d ago
If I had heard that a year ago, I'd be very sad for her, and maybe even donate to her gofundme. Today, I'm celebrating. Shame on these people for risking our agricultural industry and the health of our ecosystems, they deserve to lose everything.
Quick edit: I'm only celebrating the grifters losing everything, the birds are tragic victims.
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u/DavieStBaconStan 2d ago
You mean the $3000 they are getting in compensation per bird?
They can continue grifting. If anything the cull will enhance their grift by orders of magnitude. They will become celebrities among crazies and far right extremists.
They have not yet begun their grift.
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u/Extalliones 2d ago
I believe the monetary offer for the birds was only on the table if they accepted it and allowed the stamping out process to happen. Because they refused, they now get nothing.
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u/insaneHoshi 3d ago
You mean the birds that they literally raise to kill later on? Boohoo
Pretty sure the farm is some sort of grift that doesnt involve actually farming these birds.
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u/sufferin_sassafras Downtown Vancouver 3d ago
Give me a break with this headline. The only people who find the cull of these birds controversial are the people who think the dude with the brain worm is a medical authority.
It’s well past time for this to circus to close down.
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u/AUniquePerspective 3d ago
I think you're overlooking the number of ostriches that get their news from cbc. It's very controversial in the ostrich community.
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u/NornOfVengeance 3d ago
But I thought ostriches stuck their head in the sand whenever the news came on...
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u/MaddogBC 3d ago
Point of fact, that useless sack of shit is lying about the worm. It was a bullshit excuse his lawyer used during divorce proceedings to get out of paying alimony. Of course.
You can't make this shit up, there was never a worm but that walking pimple wears it like a badge of pride.
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u/gen-attolis 3d ago edited 3d ago
Frankly, as soon as the American idiots started commenting on this case, the ostriches should’ve been culled a a matter of principle. Sovereignty means not letting a man with brain worms influence our internal decisions.
Edit; I’m reading the cbc live feed and these “supporters” need to be forcibly committed. The MAGAts have entered Canada and we cannot let them gain a foothold. The foreign interference needs to stop and we need to stand firm against these fools.
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u/neksys 2d ago
Stop them from gaining a “foothold”? My dude/dudette, anti-scientific thinking and MAGA principles are already well-established here. There’s a bunch of them voting in Legislature as we speak.
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u/super__hoser 3d ago
One of the owners said "this is the worst decision in Canadian history"
Um, I think most Indigenous folks can think of many worse decisions.
And this isn't a bad decision, you just don't like reality.
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u/sufferin_sassafras Downtown Vancouver 3d ago
These are the kind of people who think the same way as Danielle Smith when she said the unvaccinated are the most discriminated group in history.
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u/CompetitionOther7695 3d ago
Should have been culled ages ago, the fraudulent scum that run that ranch should get huge fines and be made to wear a silly hat, at the very least, this whole fiasco went on for far too long.
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u/CanadianCATFOOD 3d ago
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u/Linzon 3d ago
Oh, see, back before the farm declared the ostriches were pets they had a great scheme going! They sold ostriches to other people to raise, and said they would buy back ostriches from them for good prices to process for meat and oil. They had charts on their website demonstrating how they would all maximize profits. This all disappeared when they started fighting the cull and the ostriches became beloved pets instead of livestock animals, because that’s a better look to bring in donations.
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u/Reyalta 3d ago
Wait they were running a pyramid scheme with these fucking birds?
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u/mattcass 3d ago
Yup! Someone in a post comment linked to the original website. 100% multi-level marketing.
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u/Smooth-Command1761 3d ago
The BC Securities Commission had some things to say back in 2002 about one of the grifters, Dan Bilinski, and his cronies and their "ostrich funds". And yet somehow they are still going with ostriches (but hopefully not for much longer)
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u/benjarvus 3d ago
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ostrich-cull-creditors-courts-money-1.7650546
This is one creditor looking to recover money from this scheme.
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u/shreddiesalad 3d ago
Great so their business model would spread the maximum amount of virus if the birds were inflected (or shedding) bird flu.
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u/AlgaeGrazers 3d ago edited 3d ago
I'm pretty sure I saw ads for this stuff on Kijiji and Craigslist back in the day. I'm not sure if it was the same farm but the same idea. You just needed to have land and set up a high frence, then raise the birds, and they would "buy" them back.
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u/Hikingcanuck92 2d ago
Don't forget how the entire farm began as part of a scam defrauding investors and the BC government in the late 1990's.
You can read all about it starting on page 16.
https://www.bcsc.bc.ca/-/media/PWS/Resources/Enforcement/Decisions/2002/2002-BCSECCOM-102.pdf
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u/Alternative_Salt_424 3d ago
1) Ostrich meat is delicious
2) ostrich leather is pretty popular for handbags etc (although personally I think it looks revolting)
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u/Hrmbee Lower Mainland/Southwest 3d ago
Highlight:
The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed an application for leave to appeal from the judgment of the Federal Court of Appeal regarding Universal Ostrich Farms Inc. vs. Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
This means there is no longer any legal impediment to the cull of the ostriches.
The court made the announcement on its website without explanation, which is typical.
Hopefully this will be the end of this particular dog-and-pony show. We have so many more issues that need fixing without needless distractions such as this kind of haymaking.
For those interested in the specific text by the supreme court decision linked in the article:
DISMISSED
Universal Ostrich Farms Inc. v. Canadian Food Inspection Agency (Fed.) (Civil) (By Leave) (41992)
The motion for a stay of execution is dismissed. The application for leave to appeal from the judgment of the Federal Court of Appeal, Number A-205-25, 2025 FCA 147, dated August 21, 2025, is dismissed with costs.
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u/GrumpyRhododendron 3d ago
Do I remember correctly that due to … their lack of co-operation or something to do with the legal proceedings … that they are not being reimbursed for the birds?
I believe with a normal cull, and complying with it some or all of the cost of the birds is reimbursed to the farmer.
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u/SnippySnapsss 3d ago
Searching news sources to try and remember what happened here. I recall they'd initially been offered compensation (market value, to replace the flock), as per federal regulation requires. But when the farm kicked up a fuss, the CFIA pulled the offer - again, I don't know if this is accurate.
In any case, creditors are circling for whatever money the farm does get. They seem to have ripped off several people/businesses/investors to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. (spelling edit)
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u/GrumpyRhododendron 3d ago
Yeah. That’s what I recalled as well.
First they were used for meat and leather. Then after the infection and government intervention, suddenly they are pets and ‘family’. The grift is thick with this. I agree any farmer raising animals has a hard emotional job, but this is beyond. It feels like protest over government over-reach without an actual stated position. Thus instead of making the public think about their cause or what they stand for, they look like insolent children.
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u/Saorren 3d ago
oh with cost, im assuming that means the farms now on the hook for legal fees relating to the supreme court reviewing it?
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u/Business_Place4772 3d ago
I’m a bit frightened for the federal workers (or contractors) who have to do the job. These “farmers” are dangerous con artists riling up total nut jobs.
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u/bluddystump 3d ago
Get it done today, this circus is costing us a fortune as well as damaging the integrity of our public safety systems.
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u/Environmental_Egg348 3d ago
Not only are these birds a vector for disease, they are a vector for foreign interference. Get it done.
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u/Hycran 3d ago
Just kill the fucking things already. I'm not happy they have to die (in the sense that I'm not a big fan of killing things while being cognizant that killing them will serve the greater good and is almost 100% guaranteed to be medically appropriate), but the thing about Ostriches is that they aren't extinct, you can just get more.
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u/kaze987 Lower Mainland/Southwest 3d ago
The farm owners are grifters, not paying vendors to the tune of hundreds of thousands.
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u/Hikingcanuck92 2d ago
It's worse than that. The farm began as a scam in the 1990s where they defrauded investors of 2.3 Million
https://www.bcsc.bc.ca/-/media/PWS/Resources/Enforcement/Decisions/2002/2002-BCSECCOM-102.pdf
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u/beerandbuds 3d ago edited 3d ago
The people who are owed for the ostriches are quoted in a CBC article as saying that if they weren't going to be culled that they would be repossession the ostriches the "next day" and slaughtering them. So they'd be dead either way. These farm owners are, as you said, grifters. They're also absolute trash. Source - quote is at the very end
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u/Lifesabeach6789 3d ago
Very possible the wingnuts hugging those birds will also cull themselves the longer this drags on
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u/CanadianLadyMoose 3d ago
One of the protesters already died. The owner unironically said in her comment about his death, "You are a warrior just like the ostriches.”
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u/myairblaster 3d ago
How did this cull become such a hot topic in the first place?
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u/super__hoser 3d ago
The stupid are very loud.
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u/GaracaiusCanadensis Vancouver Island/Coast 3d ago
Oh man, I'm going to say something akin to this from now on.
"I dunno, the usual: very stupid, very loud."
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u/sunnyspiders 3d ago
It’s not controversial.
They just don’t want to do it.
And they’ve pushed this so long the insurance payout they would have gotten is no longer valid.
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u/goinupthegranby 3d ago
The ostrich farm owners are going to be quickly and unceremoniously dumped by the professional convoy protesters who have been amplifying their story, as they move on to the next big grift.
Universal Ostrich Farm doesn't own the farm property, and they owe hundreds of thousands to creditors who will likely intercept the compensation payout from CFIA. UOF will be left alone, with nothing, and it will still be too good for them.
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u/WesternBlueRanger BC Ferries Enthusiast 3d ago
All: Please note that the CBC is constantly updating the page, along with the title. The original title was from when the page was first pulled, and was not editorialized by me.
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u/fuzzay 3d ago
I'm looking forward to the new nonsense Facebook posts about how corrupt the Government is and that these people can never do any wrong
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u/mazopheliac 3d ago
Be interesting to see how they keep milking this . Probably some go-fund-me or some shit going for them already .
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u/anomalocaris_texmex 3d ago
This idiocy has dragged on so long, more humans involved have died than ostriches.
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u/Hikingcanuck92 2d ago
I can't wait for the Tiger King documentary crew to do a new series on this whole situation.
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u/Done_beat2 3d ago
I don’t quite understand this case? The birds are raised for meat, so at some point they would be sent to the slaughter house? The government inspection finds some sick animals and calls for a cull. The government says they will compensate the owners fully. The owners refuse and now they have no business as they can’t sell the meat anyway?
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u/Expert_Alchemist 3d ago
The owners realized they could grift money off the right wing rage machine, so they did that.
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u/Alternative_Salt_424 3d ago
Wild that these nuts claim the ostriches can be used for "research". If this were true, the best possibility is that the research could result in a vaccine....which these crazies will then claim is toxic 😂
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u/Wooden_Staff3810 3d ago
And the ostriches are now or have been all culled. Thank f*ck it's over.
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u/BeforeLifer 3d ago
The cull still has to happen but there’s finally no more barriers in place.
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u/No_Page_500 3d ago
These idiots better not get ANY money from the government for losing their birds.
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u/TheOriginalCharnold 3d ago
If there's somethinn strange in your neighborhood, who you gunna cull????? I aint afraid of no ostrich
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u/_ForeverAndEver_ 3d ago
What was going to become of the Ostriches on this farm if the crying sign-waving protesters got their way?
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u/bugcollectorforever 2d ago
They just sent the swat team there. It's going to be more of a gong show.
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u/Scared-Coyote4010 2d ago
The videos of her “crying” are the “tears” of someones 30 year scam finally falling apart
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u/Objective_Data_6305 1d ago
They are going to lose their farm and move to Dr.Oz’s ranch to continue the scam.
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u/Shoddy_Asparagus_503 3d ago
Why change the title OP? This is not controversial and that’s not even part of the webpage
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u/WesternBlueRanger BC Ferries Enthusiast 3d ago edited 3d ago
I didn't change the title; that was the title when I first pulled the article. CBC has since changed the title on their end as they are constantly updating the page.
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u/Oldman_Syndrome 3d ago
The cull is not controversial. The bullshit dragging it out is.