'Culling The Cure' ostrich farm documentary gets its first reviews
Following sold-out screenings in Kelowna, viewers of 'Culling The Cure' shared their first reactions to the film exposing the fight over a B.C. ostrich flock.
The first audiences have now seen Culling The Cure: The Aftermath of Canada’s Ostrich Slaughter and the reaction coming out of the theatre has been impossible to ignore.
Brought to you by Rebel News, Culling The Cure is a feature-length tell-all documentary investigating Canada’s controversial $7 million killing of the ostrich flock being used for research at Universal Ostrich Farms in B.C., and the extraordinary fight by the farmers to save their birds.
The film takes viewers behind the headlines and into the story that Rebel News has been documenting from the farm, following the farmers, their legal battle, the government’s response and the events surrounding the eventual cull.
UPCOMING SCREENINGS
PREMIERE — Toronto — Saturday, October 17, 2026
Film screening followed by a live Q&A with B.C. Bureau Chief Drea Humphrey & Rebel News's Ezra Levant!
Get your tickets here
PREMIERE — Calgary — Sunday, October 18, 2026
Film screening followed by a live Q&A with B.C. Bureau Chief Drea Humphrey & Rebel News's Ezra Levant!
Get your tickets here
Produced by Drea Humphrey and directed by Robert Bailey with In the Furnace Films, Culling The Cure brings together the people who lived through the story and exposes the entities that worked against them, despite the immense amount of grassroots and political support the farmers received in their effort to try and save their avian flu recovered flock.
On November 6, 2025, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, with the help of the RCMP, went through great lengths to try and shut out public observation of the ostrich slaughter.
Now, thanks to Culling the Cure, Canadians are finally getting the chance to see what the state and its choice media tried to hide it for themselves.
The documentary premiered in front of a sold-out crowd in Kelowna, which included members of the families whose lives were at the centre of the story. Farmer Karen Espersen was there with her adult son, Esper Espersen, daughter Katie Pasitney and family.
For the farmers featured in the film, seeing their story on the big screen was about more than simply watching a documentary. After everything they went through, they finally had the opportunity to see their experiences documented and shared with an audience.
The next screening took the film to Langley, where co-farmer Dave Bilinski and his wife, Loraine, were also in attendance.
Immediately after the screenings, I caught up with some of the audience members to get their honest first reactions. You can hear directly from those viewers in the video above.
The next screenings are coming to Toronto and Calgary, where audiences will have the opportunity to watch Culling The Cure on the big screen and then take part in a live Q&A with Drea Humphrey, Rebel News colleagues and some of the people interviewed for the film.
If you haven't seen it yet, grab your tickets before they’re gone.
Have a location and want to host your own Culling The Cure to your own community, with 40 people or more? Email [email protected] to find out how.
Drea Humphrey
B.C. Bureau Chief
Based in British Columbia, Drea Humphrey reports on Western Canada for Rebel News. Drea’s reporting is not afraid to challenge political correctness, or ask the tough questions that mainstream media tends to avoid.
