In an exclusive interview on Broken Truth, hosts John Davidson and Warner Mendenhall sat down with Katie Pasitney of Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, British Columbia. What began as a story of a family farm battling avian influenza has become one of the most shocking examples of government overreach in Canadian agricultural history — a 314-day standoff that ended in a literal firing squad.
Pasitney recounted how the nightmare started in December 2024. A handful of ostriches fell ill after contact with migratory birds. Two deceased birds tested positive for H5N1 via PCR by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). The agency — Canada’s equivalent of the USDA or FDA — ordered the immediate destruction of the entire flock under its rigid “stamping-out” policy. The birds? They were not poultry. They were ratites — a distinct family including ostriches, emus, and rheas — and the vast majority had already recovered. Many had natural antibodies from prior exposure dating back to 2020, creating what Pasitney called a “living laboratory” of herd immunity.
The family fought for 314 days, begging for live testing, offering expert witnesses, and pleading with the CFIA, courts, and even international voices like RFK Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz. They presented evidence that the flock posed zero risk: flightless birds, geographically isolated 135 km from any major city, on a farm dedicated to antibody research rather than meat or eggs. The CFIA refused. 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.
Then came November 6–7, 2025. After the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear the final appeal, CFIA agents, backed by RCMP, turned the farm into a kill zone. Pasitney described it as “the most brutal possible way” — a theatrical display of force with unmarked marksmen, hay-bale kill pens, and high-capacity rounds that aerosolized blood and tissue across the property. Officially, 314 ostriches were culled. The family insists the body count in the field didn’t add up. They suspect many hens — the source of their prized antibody science — were quietly removed in the dead of night (2:30–4:30 a.m. operations behind the pens) for study. Left behind: blood-soaked straw bales, shell casings, unspent rounds, and discarded syringes. The family is now testing the syringe contents, believing the birds were being experimented on before execution.
Key Updates from the Interview
The fight didn’t end with the gunfire. Pasitney revealed major post-cull developments:
Tribunal Victories and Fines: The family faced two $10,000 fines. They lost the first for allegedly failing to report the initial illness (despite phone logs showing they contacted vets immediately). But they won the second on a critical technicality: the CFIA improperly served quarantine documents by email instead of hand-delivering them with a proper risk assessment. The tribunal judge rejected the agency’s excuses — weather, protesters, lack of RCMP — noting they somehow mobilized hundreds of officers for the cull. Pasitney pointed out the absurdity: from February 26 to September 22, 2025, during the supposed “most virulent threat,” CFIA never conducted a single onsite visit after dropping off the improperly served papers in a plastic baggie.
Posthumous Testing Bombshell: A longtime farm supporter secretly tested a bird after the cull. Result? Negative for active avian influenza — exactly as the family had claimed all along.
Successful Treatment the CFIA Ignored: While barred from treating their own animals, the family used hypochlorous acid (HOCl) in the water at a 5% solution. Symptoms vanished across the flock. No more deaths. The CFIA showed zero interest in this low-cost, effective mitigation — even as it could have protected supply chains and trading partners.
Evidence of Pre-Planned Cull: Shockingly, the local landfill was contacted in November 2024 — before any birds showed symptoms in December — about accepting ostrich carcasses. The CFIA had already lined up disposal before the outbreak was even confirmed.
Science Theft Allegations: During one visit, CFIA agents asked where the family stored “COVID-19 antibodies.” In March 2025, the agency quietly granted funds to a Quebec lab to develop antibody diagnostic test kits — the exact innovation Universal Ostrich had offered using their recovered flock’s bloodwork. Pasitney believes their science made them a target: competition for Big Pharma and government-controlled solutions.
Ongoing Legal Battle: Attorney Shane Dukas of Vernon, BC, is handling the case, with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) taking the constitutional portion. A compensation request has been pending for 2–3 months. The family is challenging search warrants, their own arrests (for feeding their animals after being “baited” to the back of the farm), Charter rights violations, and even the wrong address listed on every quarantine document — potentially rendering the entire quarantine illegal. They also discovered their bloodwork shows H5N1 antibodies, yet they remain healthy — further proof the virus is not the apocalyptic threat portrayed.
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Pasitney named the birds that were family: Peter (her mother’s protector), Q-tip (the tall, fuzzy-headed giant), Big Bear (always pacing for attention), Regretta (the bruising pecker), Annabelle, Colin (half-blind but full of life), and dozens more that trusted humans until the end. “They destroyed my mom’s identity,” she said. These were 20- to 35-year-old breeder stock, not six-month meat birds.
The interview painted a broader picture: misclassification of ratites as poultry, a “one-size-fits-all” policy that ignores science, and what Pasitney and the hosts described as part of a larger agenda — food control, genetic biodiversity loss, and the push toward lab-grown meat under the 2030 framework. “He who controls the food controls the people,” they noted. The cull wasn’t just about birds; it was about crushing independent farmers and independent science.
Public support was overwhelming and creative: a rental company demanded its vehicles back (loaded with kill materials), local businesses refused bobcats and tarps, and independent journalist Drea Humphrey of Rebel News provided boots-on-the-ground coverage that mainstream Canadian media (government-funded) largely ignored or spun.
Pasitney remains resolute: “We’re not giving up. The blood that was spilled will have justice.” The family is pursuing every legal avenue, calling for whistleblowers, and urging Canadians to wake up to emergency powers, unelected agency overreach, and the erosion of food security.
Watch the full interview on BrokenTruth.TV. This isn’t just one farm’s tragedy — it’s a warning. When government can execute healthy animals on suspicion alone, destroy livelihoods, and ignore science, no farmer — or citizen — is safe. Follow the ongoing legal battle and support the fight for accountability at Universal Ostrich Farms. The world was watching in November. The real question is: will it act now?
