A federal judge has effectively lifted a Saturday deadline for a B.C. farm to kill about 400 ostriches hit by an outbreak of avian flu.
Justice Michael Battista ruled Friday to stay the cull order imposed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency while the farm involved seeks a judicial review of the case.
Battista said in a written decision that going ahead with Saturday’s order before the matter could be further examined “would expose the applicant to irreparable harm.”
A lawyer for Universal Ostrich Farms Inc. had argued in a Friday hearing that the ostriches should be exempted from the order because their genetics are the subject of an antibody research study, making them rare and valuable….