September 29, 2025 - • Threatened arrest for using drones to check on the birds. • Fed the ostriches their own CFIA feed instead of the family’s feed, even though they were ordered not to. • Refused to let the family test the feed they were giving the ostriches.

March 25, 2026 - No onsite testing of survivors was allowed — their own policy threatened farmers with up to $200,000 fines per animal or six months in jail for attempting to test or treat. The agency even struck the family’s expert reports from judicial review.

January 31, 2026 - Unfortunately, you need to be able ... and application of the policy. Many of the farm's supporters have questioned why the CFIA refused to test the birds that survived the initial H5N1 outbreak, which killed 69 ostrich...

September 30, 2025 - • Threatened arrest for using drones to check on the birds. • Fed the ostriches their own CFIA feed instead of the family’s feed, even though they were ordered not to. • Refused to let the family test the feed they were giving the ostriches.

November 7, 2025 - They were threatened with penalties if they conducted independent testing, and CFIA declined to perform further confirmatory tests. • Not a Food Operation: The ostriches were not being raised for consumption and had been kept for research ...

Thanks to their strong legs, ostriches can reach immense speeds and deliver dangerous kicks when they feel threatened. Like most wildlife in Africa, it’s essential to keep a safe distance and not provoke them.

February 11, 2026 - At the same time the CFIA will not let the farmers pay for the tests themselves, saying they will charge them $250,000 per ostrich and put them in jail for 6 months. The federal agency and the RCMP have seized and occupied the farm since September ...

May 28, 2025 - The agency ordered the farm’s owners, Karen Espersen and Dave Bilinski, to eradicate the surviving birds, but they argued that the animals should be kept alive to test their antibodies in order to potentially develop treatments for the virus.

2 days ago - Some ostriches forage with other ostriches or mammals such as wildebeests and zebras to detect predators more efficiently. If the nest or young are threatened, either or both of the parents may create a distraction, feigning injury.

Wild populations of the common ostrich have declined but, in general, the species is not considered threatened. One subspecies, the Arabian ostrich, became extinct in the 1960’s; another, the North African ostrich, is critically endangered.

November 10, 2025 - CFIA rejected their argument that the surviving ostriches were immune to H5N1, and, for safety reasons, would not allow testing of the birds for the virus.

Farm-raised ostriches are also harvested for eggs, supple leather, and gourmet meat that is lower in cholesterol than beef. ​ At one time, most of Africa was home to the ostrich. Today, although not threatened, the ostrich requires strict protection and farming to conserve the remaining populations.

November 15, 2025 - Both Espersen and her partner became infected by bird flu but insisted they didn’t notice any symptoms. Meanwhile, the family had brought their case to court and won a stay of execution until they finished their appeal. The farm called on the CFIA to revisit them and test the other animals. This sounded reasonable, but the agency insisted it wasn’t coming back given the threats on the phone and by email from the ostrich defenders and the supposed dangers posed by the birds themselves (they can weigh up to 300lb and run at speeds of more than 40mph).

A few authorities, including the Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World, do not recognize it as separate.Taylor, Joe (4 September 2013). "Archived 2014 discussion: Ostrich (Struthio camelus) is being split: list S. molybdophanes as Near Threatened or Vulnerable?", birdlife.org.

November 6, 2025 - Earlier this year, she called into his WABC radio station, hoping to catch his attention, and told him and Curtis Sliwa, the recently defeated GOP candidate for New York City mayor, on “Sid & Friends in the Morning” that “the Canadian government wants our farm killed off of two tests.” · The farmer’s gambit worked. Not only is Catsimatidis now bankrolling the Universal Ostrich Farms’ legal battle against the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, but he also has recruited members of the Trump administration to the fight, including Kennedy and Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

May 28, 2025 - The appeal argues that the Federal Court "made multiple reversible errors" when it upheld the agency's decision to cull the ostrich herd earlier this month. It claims the court "took an unduly narrow" view of the agency's mandate under the Health of Animals Act, wrongly concluded that expert reports were unnecessary, failed to fully consider the consequences of the cull decision, and did not properly determine if the agency's denial of further testing of the animals was reasonable.

December 3, 2025 - When an ostrich senses danger and cannot run away from the threat, it will flop to the ground and remain still with its head and neck flat on the ground, so it blends in with the ground. When an adult ostrich is threatened, it attacks with a ​clawed foot that delivers a kick powerful enough to kill a lion.

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Ostriches are birds, not mammals: they lay eggs and have feathers and a beak. The species has four subspecies. Despite their limited distribution, ostriches are also kept on farms, contributing to conservation in the wild. The ostrich (Struthio camelus) belongs to the family of ostriches (Struthionidae).