The Canada Agricultural Overview Tribunal has overturned a $10,000 penalty imposed on Common Ostrich Farms in British Columbia for allegedly failing to quarantine its birds from February 6 to February 26, 2025.
Avian Influenza Detection and Quarantine Order
Extremely pathogenic avian influenza struck the farm in December 2024, inflicting the deaths of a number of dozen birds in a flock of about 300. Officers issued an preliminary quarantine discover by way of electronic mail on December 31, adopted by a closing amended discover emailed on February 6 and delivered in individual on February 26.
Tribunal’s Key Findings
The tribunal dominated that regulators didn’t correctly ship the ultimate amended discover in individual as required by rules, invalidating the advantageous. “The company has not met their burden to show that both Common waived their proper to non-public supply or that the circumstances justify an exception to non-public supply requirement,” the choice states.
Regulators argued that emailing the discover to the farm’s lawyer on February 6 happy the foundations, however the tribunal disagreed. It discovered no proof of outstanding dangers stopping in-person supply, noting solely regular winter situations existed through the interval.
Bodily supply serves crucial functions, the ruling explains: it allows workers to gauge the illness risk’s severity and ensure farm house owners’ understanding. “Primarily based on this in-person evaluation, officers can then act to forestall the unfold of the communicable illness by seizing or destroying the animal or implementing further controls,” the tribunal wrote. “E mail service defeats these functions completely.”
Ongoing Authorized Battles and Cull
This choice marks one other chapter in disputes surrounding Common Ostrich Farms, the place avian flu detection drew international scrutiny. Protesters and supporters, together with U.S. figures Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz, fought the cull order. Marksmen in the end culled the birds in Edgewood, B.C., in November 2025.
The overturned advantageous differs from a separate $10,000 penalty upheld final December for the farm’s failure to report avian influenza signs in late 2024. A parliamentary disclosure in late January revealed the cull price taxpayers roughly $7 million, together with $3.8 million in RCMP bills.
