A relative calm has set in across Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, British Columbia — or at least as calm as a farm could be, with a round-the-clock procession of police vehicles moving in and out of the area.

The standoff over the fate of 400 birds continues, as the farmers pursue an appeal of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's cull order stemming from an avian flu outbreak in December 2024.

But the birds appear to be recovered, healthy and have acquired herd immunity. The CFIA, however, has barred testing the birds for the virus under punishment of steep fines or even jail time.

So, while the farm remains under control of the CFIA authorities due to a warrant, the birds' fate hangs on whether the Supreme Court will allow a last-ditch appeal.

On Thursday's Rebel Roundup livestream, Tamara Ugolini was joined by Sheila Gunn Reid, who was checking in live from the farm in remote southeastern B.C.

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“This is exactly what happened with COVID,” Sheila said. “Some government official decided there's only one way to deal with this and they need to be unchanging, and they'll punish anybody who tries to challenge the unscientificness of the rules in front of them.”

The CFIA decisionmakers are “linear rule followers to a fault,” she continued, adding the ostriches “represent natural immunity — and we're not supposed to know about those things anymore.”

The story unfolding at the farm would be drastically different were it not for independent journalists covering the story, said Tamara.

“You would be believing the mainstream media and their parroted virologist, immunologist doctors that they recycle over and over again, who have nothing to do with this story, who have no experience with ostriches, ostensibly know nothing about them biologically, claiming 'oh, we cannot be sure if they're healthy and uncontaminated.'”

The situation at the farm is “a lot less heated than it was last week” while the farmers and their supporters awaited the ruling in the stay of execution appeal, Sheila noted.

Police vehicles and drones, however, are still regularly operating in the area, causing “a lot of added stress to the flock,” she continued, “especially when there's already concerns about the care being given to them by the CFIA.”