The union representing Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) workers tasked with carrying out a cull at a B.C. ostrich farm says there are fears over the workers’ safety as emotions run high.
Over 400 birds at Universal Ostrich farm in Edgewood, B.C., face the prospect of a cull due to an avian flu detection in December.
The CFIA, which is handling Canada’s response to an ongoing avian flu outbreak, won a court case earlier this month and says the cull will go ahead due to concerns over the spread and mutation of the virus.
But a vocal contingent of supporters — including U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — has spoken out against the cull, arguing the flightless birds, many decades old, pose little threat of spreading avian flu and the herd should be preserved for scientific study.
The remote community of Edgewood, B.C., is now ground zero for a fight to save 400 ostriches. Protesters have descended on Universal Ostrich Farm this weekend, defying an avian flu cull order. Radio-Canada’s Camille Vernet was there this week, exploring why people are so deeply invested in this flock’s fate.
Supporters have camped out at the Edgewood farm for weeks, saying they won’t allow the cull to go ahead, even as farm spokesperson Katie Pasitney has repeatedly urged supporters to be peaceful, respectful and to follow the law.
Now, the union representing CFIA workers says it’s fearful for their safety, over online death threats it says were made against CFIA members.
“Nobody likes to see their flocks culled, and we certainly don’t take any pleasure in doing it, but … it is our jobs, it’s our mandate for the safety of Canadians to ensure that we carry out our job,” said Milton Dyck, the president of the Agriculture Union, in an interview with CBC News.
Dyck said that a CFIA vehicle in the area of the farm was also pelted with a rock, but he does not know if that was directly related to the planned ostrich cull.
He said that the average worker was not responsible for the cull decision, which the CFIA says is due to wider concerns over virus mutation and the impact it could have on Canada’s food supply.
“Some people will be passionate about what their motives are for keeping the ostriches — whether they love ostriches, whether it’s something that they feel personally about disease,” he said.
“But we have to look at it as we are doing a service to Canadians because we’re protecting the health and safety of Canadians. We’re protecting the value of the food chain going forward.”
Demonstrators began gathering this weekend at Universal Ostrich farm in the community of Edgewood, B.C. They’re there to protest a federal order to cull a flock of nearly 400 birds. As Radio-Canada’s Camille Vernet explains, it comes after the farm lost a court challenge of the cull last week.
In a statement, the union said it supported every individual’s right to peaceful protest, so long as it does not obstruct the work of its members.
While the CFIA has said the cull would be proceeding, it has not provided an exact date when it would occur.
