Universal Ostrich Farms and Landco Ventures have filed a civil lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court against the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Attorney General of Canada and the RCMP.

The suit makes multiple claims centred on the controversial cull of their large, avian flu-recovered ostrich flock on Nov. 6 and 7 of last year.

According to the farmers, 37 of their birds went unaccounted for during the CFIA’s occupation of the farm.

“The full extent of missing birds has not been disclosed to Universal, and CFIA has provided no satisfactory explanation for the discrepancy,” the claim reads.

Karen Espersen, who co-owns the farm with Dave Bilinski, told me the CFIA’s count has shifted over time. “They told the Attorney General there was 330, but the public, they told 314,” she said. “There was 351 birds on the farm the day CFIA showed up here.”

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Her daughter, Katie Pasitney, who served as a spokesperson during the battle to try and save the birds from the CFIA slaughter, says the family noticed more roosters than hens among the dead birds. “It is to our belief that a lot of the hens went out the back door,” she said.

The suit also claims the CFIA unlawfully seized about 1,200 eggs. The family says those eggs were essential to a dietary supplement business with projected revenue of more than $200 million.

The claim also alleges animal cruelty in how the birds were handled and killed. It says the RCMP occupied the property around the clock from Sept. 22 to Nov. 13, 2025, with CFIA staff alongside.

In August, the family told me the CFIA had informed them in writing that it would not compensate them for a single bird. According to the lawsuit, the CFIA did offer $942,000 for 314 birds, and the family is now rejecting that offer as below fair market value. The CFIA says the family turned down compensation.

“Why would we ever say no to any compensation after the tragedy and the torment and the torture that they put us through?” Pasitney said. “That doesn’t make sense.”

For both Pasitney and Espersen, the fight over the ostriches represents something much bigger than their own plight.

“They might have won the chance, the opportunity to destroy our animals because we fought policy and not the law, but now the law is catching up to them, because they have to be held accountable,” Espersen said. “We’ve said this from day one that we would never give up the fight, the justice for the birds.”