Country’s top court declines to block controversial cull of hundreds of birds amid fears of an avian flu outbreak
Canada’s food inspection agency says it plans to begin a “complete depopulation” of hundreds of ostriches at a farm after the country’s top court declined to block the controversial cull.
On Thursday, the supreme court said it would not take up a case that has catalyzed a fierce protest by the farm owners and protesters – as well as senior figures in the Trump administration, who have decried the public health effort as government overreach.
Universal Ostrich Farms, near the town of Edgewood, British Columbia, was first ordered in May to cull nearly 400 birds, amid fears of an outbreak of H5N1 avian flu, and earlier this week officials seized control of the business. Sixty-nine birds have already died after the outbreak of a flu-like illness, but on Wednesday, Canada’s supreme court issued an interim stay on the cull order as it weighed whether to hear the case.
Thursday’s ruling removed any legal impediment to commencing the killings.
