EDGEWOOD, B.C.—The smell of sizzling bacon fills the farmhouse of Katie Pasitney and her mother Karen Esperson at Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, B.C., as supporters come in to have breakfast and discuss strategy.
Since being served with a cull order by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) at the beginning of this year, the farm has become the centre of international debate over the rights of farm owners and the process to deal with agricultural livestock diagnosed with diseases.
Pasitney, the daughter of one of the co-owners who has been acting as the farm’s defacto spokesperson, sits at the dining room table on the morning of Aug. 27, joined by supporters Jeff Gaudry and Rob Wilkinson, who discuss the next steps after the farm lost its final court appeal to stop the cull order earlier this month. Pasitney’s dogs Shiloh and Bear watch on from the floor….