'Couldn't stomach it': Ostriches loaded in bins after shooting cull stuns protesters

UPDATE 6:45 p.m.
It had taken more than 10 months before the first gunshots marked the beginning of a cull of hundreds of ostriches at a British Columbia farm that was ordered during an avian flu outbreak last New Year's Eve. But it was over within hours of starting on Thursday night, and by Friday afternoon supporters of the farm that had fought the cull were watching Canadian Food Inspection Agency workers in white protective suits begin disposing of the carcasses. A utility vehicle with a front shovel was loading the remains into large metal containers inside the hay-bale pen where the birds were corralled before the CFIA said a "professional marksman" killed the flock estimated to number 300 to 330 birds. Shots began ringing out at Universal Ostrich Farms near Edgewood in southeastern B.C. shortly after nightfall Thursday as police blocked a road leading to the main area where the farm's supporters had been gathering. The shooting went on for hours as protesters screamed at the workers, calling them murderers and telling them to stop.
Earlier Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada had ruled that it would not hear the farmers' final appeal, ending the last legal obstruction to the cull that had drawn criticism from an avid protest movement and the administration of United States President Donald Trump. The farm's co-owner, Dave Bilinski, imagined the scene as a marksman shot down "on these defenceless animals … wounded birds down there all over the place." He also worried about supporters of the farm who were shocked by the shootings. "There are many supporters here that right now need mental health (support)," he said in an interview on Friday. He said the CFIA should have had mental health workers "right here, right now."
The inspection agency said that using the marksman had been the "most appropriate and humane option" to carry out the cull. "This method is consistent with Canadian Veterinary Medical Association and American Veterinary Medical Association recommendations and may be used as required, particularly when other methods are impractical," it said. The agency said the cull was completed under veterinary supervision and it "has now started the disposal stage of the disease response," it said.
Farm supporter Janice Tyndall, 72, said she listened to it intermittently for a couple of hours before she "couldn't stomach it anymore." The farmer from Salmon Arm, B.C., was back in her car at a different part of the farm around midnight when she heard the shooting start again. "I'm thinking, 'they're still shooting? How could they still be shooting?'" she said. Tyndall said the gunfire varied, with some "lower bangs" and others higher, "like somebody with a high-powered rifle."
Tyndall, who said she had visited the farm six times since the spring, including her most recent stay of two weeks, said she "felt every shot" she heard overnight. She said she admired the farmers, describing them as fighting government overreach and the CFIA, which lacked accountability. "It's gonna ruin their lives, and they need a lot of support and thank God that they're standing up," she said of the farmers.
The farmers are eligible for up to $3,000 per ostrich in compensation, according to the CFIA, though Bilinski said he hadn't heard of receiving anything.
Katie Pasitney, whose mother Karen Espersen co-owns the farm, said in a Facebook post Friday that the family was "broken and can't imagine the suffering last night." She said later that they planned to follow trucks carrying the carcasses in a kind of funeral procession.

Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press - Nov 7, 2025 / 6:44 pm | Story: 582687
https://www.castanet.net/news/Nelson/582687/Professional-marksmen-completed-ostrich-cull-CFIA