So, Canada wants to destroy a flock of ostriches – a year after they were exposed to a contagious disease, and yet survived – because maybe, perhaps they could still be infected and therefore a danger to humans. But they won’t remove coyotes from city streets which ARE a danger to people and love to eat little dogs. Why is that? Why are ostriches in a pen more dangerous than free ranging coyotes? If one government is prepared to kill the birds, why cannot another government relocate coyotes?
A request was made to The Supreme Court of Canada to hear the case between Universal Ostrich Farm and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which ordered a cull of the flock of just under 400 healthy ostriches who survived a “bird flu” outbreak on Dec. 31, 2024, after an avian flu outbreak killed 69 ostriches.
For a time, the isolated Universal Ostrich Farm in British Columbia raised ostriches for slaughter and sold their meat. However, the farm now primarily focuses on breeding and using the eggs for scientific research, particularly for antibody production, after an avian flu outbreak impacted the farm. There antibodies could save the lives of other animals and humans too. CFIA says ostriches that appear healthy can still spread H5N1, including new mutations of the virus.
CIFA: The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is the federal agency responsible for safeguarding Canada’s food supply has controlled the flock since September 22 2025, with zero avian flu deaths — but Canada’s top court cleared the way for Ottawa’s zero-tolerance cull to begin agreeing with “The two decisions(to dispose of all the ostriches by Feb. 1, 2025) made under s. 48 of the Health of Animals Act, S.C. 1990, c. 21, and in accordance with the CFIA’s Stamping-Out Policy, which is operationalized through the CFIA’s Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza 2022 Event Response Plan,” the Supreme Court of Canada says in a statement.
The case garnered international attention, including from high-profile members of the Trump administration. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has written to the CFIA asking it to stop the cull, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, offered to bring the flock to his personal ranch. What a great solution. Oh. No? Hmmm. My question: Why not? Trump Derangement Syndrome overrules life?
The CFIA, currently on site at the Ostrich Farm, moved the ostriches into a “kill pen,” essentially an open field on the ostrich farm blocked off by walls made from bails of hay to absorb bullets and block viewers on the ground from seeing what’s going on.
And now to the coyotes.
Vaughn, a community just north of Toronto has been having a problem with coyotes.
I am quoting from a news article. I can’t believe what I am reading.
“Vaughan residents are voicing concern over a growing number of coyote incidents, some involving pets and young children.
While there have been coyote incidents across the city, the problem seems to be most concentrated in the Thornhill area. Of the 386 coyote sightings in Vaughan so far this year, 240 have been in Ward 5, according to the city. There were 315 sightings in the ward in all of 2024 and just 77 in 2023.
A woman noticed a coyote in her backyard right beside the deck were her daughter and dog were playing!
“Pets have been killed, and parents are terrified of having their kids walking to and from school because kids have been chased. It’s a problem,” she said. “People don’t sit in their backyards anymore.
I’ve never seen anything like that,” Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca said at a working session of council Wednesday, referring to the video. “I’ve never experienced in all of my years living in Vaughan, separate and apart from being mayor, the number of residents who are telling us that they have actually had their household pets injured or, in some cases, killed.”
What did the politicians decide to do?
“The city adopted a coyote strategy in 2022 that focused on public education. Staff said that while coyote sightings have increased since then, they still believe the program is working.”
Now, they have brought a “motion to have city staff explore the possibility of hiring qualified licensed trappers to deal with coyotes in problem areas, as some other Ontario municipalities have done.” After “York Regional Police confirmed that officers attended at least two incidents in York Region this summer for reports of children bitten by coyotes. “
Not wanting to harm the coyotes, there are rules about relocating them.
Provincial regulations generally require that wildlife not be released more than one kilometres away from their capture site.
It seems the people are the problem. ““What makes Ward 5 unique? What brings wildlife to this area? And so looking at the uniqueness of the landscape, and then the availability of what’s already there naturally, the food sources, and then maybe folks that need more guidance in terms of how they might encourage unwillingly or unknowingly, wildlife to visit their backyards,””
And just kill me:City staff said the most effective way to deal with the problem is to double down on “coexistence strategies” such as educating the public, proactive monitoring and working with local stakeholders. It seems the people are the problem.
So coyotes eating dogs and attacking humans are less a problem than ostriches. Canada will kill ostriches that were offered a new home in America but refuse to relocate animals attacking people.
This is Canada.
From the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Tarfon used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it.”
Diane Weber Bederman
