Universal Ostrich Farm sees $10,000 fine wiped after CFIA misstep

The Universal Ostrich Farm has successfully appealed a $10,000 fine for breaching quarantine rules because of a misstep by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

According to a Feb. 6 Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal decision, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was supposed to serve a quarantine violation notice in person, and not by email.

The decision says the quarantine violation was emailed to the farm’s lawyer in February 2025 before being delivered by hand 20 days later.

The farm’s owners, David Bilinski and Karen Espersen, appealed the fine arguing that the legislation mandated that the notice had to be served in person and the Tribunal agreed.

The $10,000 fine and the violation were wiped.

However, the Tribunal’s ruling only counts for the roughly three weeks between when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency emailed the violation notice and when it was delivered in person 20 days later.

Universal Ostrich Farm spokesperson Katie Pasitney took to social media using the victory on a technicality to cast doubt over the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s entire operation.

“If procedural law wasn’t followed to lawfully serve quarantine papers was proper legal procedure ensured for the shooting, conducted with 800 plus shots less than 300 meters from an open highway to kill our healthy animals?” Pasitney wrote on social media.

Pasitney also doesn’t address that the Tribunal says the notice needs to be delivered in person because of the seriousness of the situation.

“Quarantine notices trigger active disease control measures that are essential to controlling the spread of disease. Personal delivery allows for immediate compliance by ensuring that the correct person at the correct location fully understands their obligations and is willing and able to comply,” the decision reads.

While the ostriches started dying in late 2024, the farm’s owners didn’t bring a vet in or report the issue to the authorities.

“The (farm’s) owners purport to be experts in ostrich health and welfare. And yet they failed to exercise the same level of adherence to the Health of Animals Act that a reasonably prudent person would have done in a similar situation,” the Tribunal said in an earlier decision, calling their conduct “negligent.”

The current decision says the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued the quarantine violation after it found the farm had breached multiple orders to quarantine the birds after avian influenza killed numerous ostriches.

The farm argued that the quarantine rules were designed for poultry and were either impractical or ineffective when dealing with ostriches.

“Universal also claimed that the conditions imposed to prevent wild birds from coming into contact with the ostriches, their feed and water were either impossible or impractical,” the decision reads.

The farm also argued that the continuation of the quarantine order was unwarranted, as their Ostriches were no longer dying of bird flu.

However, the Tribunal said that it didn’t need to address those arguments as the documents weren’t served properly.

In the decision, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency argued it had instructions to communicate with the farm’s lawyer by email, as it had done about the proposed cull.

However, the Tribunal ruled the lawyer had said to email him for “this matter,” referring to the cull, not quarantine issues.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency also argued the farm was isolated and “ice and snow made it difficult to access the property.”

However, the Tribunal ruled that the agency’s staff had been to the farm on numerous occasions.

“In fact, videos submitted by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to the Tribunal show protesters live streaming from Universal Ostrich Farm’s property during this period. Although snow is visible, the road appears to be plowed and persons are outside under sunny blue skies,” the Tribunal ruled.

Ultimately, the Tribunal ruled the notice had to be served by hand and dismissed the $10,000 fine.

It’s unclear how this will affect the farm’s finances, as it publicly made around $200,000 in donations, but has numerous creditors who have sued the farm for roughly $250,000.

The protestors who followed the spectacle led the operations that cost taxpayers $6.7-million, mostly in RCMP costs. The RCMP said that some businesses had received thousands of threats, including death threats.