The owners of Universal Ostrich farm in Edgewood were removed from the property and arrested by RCMP on Tuesday afternoon.
One of the farm’s co-owners confirms the farm’s spokesperson and her mother were arrested while trying to feed the about 400 ostriches.
This is the statement from RCMP on Tuesday regarding the arrests and the police presence at the farm.
“On September 3, 2025, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) applied for and was granted a Warrant to Search the Universal Ostrich Farm property located in Edgewood, BC. Due to the ongoing protest activity at the farm and increased tensions resulting from the various court proceedings over several months, the BC RCMP was requested to attend the farm by the CFIA to keep the peace and enforce the law while their agents conduct their lawful authority to search the property.
The enforcement operation began on Monday, September 22, 2025. As with any protest, the RCMP is an impartial party and takes a measured approach to ensuring the safety of everyone involved in the dispute and those present at the site.
The BC RCMP’s Police Liaison Team (PLT) has been attending the farm on a regular basis to establish and maintain communication lines with those individuals who are exercising their charter protected right to hold lawful, peaceful and safe demonstrations. The goal of the PLT is to work with all groups and organizers, so they can fulfill their objectives in the safest manner for everyone, and to ensure that all avenues to resolve the conflict are exhausted without the need for police enforcement actions such as making any arrests.
Today, on September 23, two individuals were arrested under Section 35(1) of the Health of Animals Act for obstructing CFIA agents from performing their duties. They have been processed and released.
The RCMP has also received complaints from businesses in the area of threats, intimidation and harassment due to the dispute. We are investigating these incidents and will take steps to ensure that those who unlawfully interfere with or threaten the safety of any person or property may be held accountable in accordance with the laws of Canada.
The RCMP would like to emphasize that the CFIA is the lead agency in this dispute. We are committed to remaining impartial and are mindful of our roles and responsibilities to the public to keep the peace and be part of the solution.”
Katie Pasitney was live streaming early Tuesday morning to her Facebook where RCMP could be seen warning Katie and her mother to leave the ostrich pens or they would be forcefully apprehended.
In a Facebook live video Monday, a Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) officer handed papers to Katie Pasitney and explained what was going to happen with the property and birds over the next few days.
“[The] CFIA served us with search warrants at the fence. No emotion, no empathy, no heart.” Pasitney said in a separate video on her Facebook page after speaking with a CFIA. “If we do not leave the property we will be arrested then removed from the property. They have now increased our quarantine zone into three separate properties and told us that one section was a burial zone.”
In the first live video, the agent was seen explaining the “burial zone” was just a title for the area and not where the birds will be buried. That video is below.
Shortly after, RCMP members were seen taping off the entrance to the farm.
Earlier Monday morning, in live streams starting at 4 a.m., panic washed over supporters of the farm as Pasitney said the power had been shut off to the bird enclosure and word came down of a convoy staging in Vernon.
“Here they come. Please pray for our family and our farm,” she said online before attempting to calm a suddenly agitated herd of birds. “It’s okay. It’s okay.”
The CFIA ordered the killings after 69 members of the ostrich flock died in December 2024 and January 2025, and avian flu was detected in the carcasses.
Rumors had swirled for weeks about when the CFIA could descend on the farm. The agency never responded to media requests about when it would carry out the slaughter.
Monday morning, the police confirmed they were on the farm alongside the CFIA.
“The RCMP has been requested to attend the farm by the lead agency, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), who was granted lawful authority to execute a search warrant,” an RCMP representative said in an email.
“Our primary role is to keep the peace and enforce the law while CFIA agents conduct their business.”
The Edgewood property has been locked in a nine-month battle over the cull order.
The ordeal has escalated into an international controversy that has drawn support from high-ranking U.S. officials, including U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr., former TV host Dr. Mehmet Oz, and the Trump administration.
The family argues their ostriches have developed natural immunity after surviving the initial outbreak, with 251 days (as of September 22) passing without any symptoms of illness. They’ve proposed innovative solutions, including reclassifying ostriches from poultry to red meat flightless birds, which could remove them from strict poultry regulations.
The legal battle reached a crucial point during a recent appeal hearing in Ottawa in July. But in late August, the Federal Court of Appeal rejected the farm’s bid to prevent the cull, which was originally ordered by the agency last December.
The CFIA said the cull is necessary because exposed flocks create an opportunity for the virus to mutate.
On its website, the agency said “specific operational plans and dates will not be shared with the public in advance.”
