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On last night's episode of The Gunn Show, Rebel News reporter Drea Humphrey joined Sheila Gunn Reid to share the latest updates on the "Battle for the Birds" at Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, B.C.

The battle began when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) received news, via an anonymous tip late last year, that members of the farm's ostrich flock were sick and that some had died. The farmers were happy to comply with the CFIA's testing of the birds, but their cooperation turned to confusion when the CFIA chose to test only two of the dead birds—using controversial PCR tests—and, based on those results, ordered that the remainder of the now-recovered flock be "humanely depopulated" to prevent the spread of avian flu.

Not only are the 400 remaining ostriches "like family" to the owners of Universal Ostrich Farms, but they have, since 2020, been involved in groundbreaking research that the owners claim has neutralized multiple strains of COVID-19 and has the potential to do the same for H5N1 avian flu, to which the birds may now have herd immunity.

Drea Humphrey, who has been on the ground at the farm reporting on the pushback against the cull order, says the importance of this fight cannot be overstated. "This is a serious threat, if this cull goes through… to farming and food sovereignty, to freedom in science, and to even property rights," she said.

Even more disturbing are the possibilities surrounding why the CFIA is so intent on wiping out the flock. The farmers speculate that the powers that be may not want their crucial pathogen research to continue. "The CFIA is refusing to retest them to prove the farmers wrong or prove themselves right. And they're getting immense pushback politically now internationally, and they're still saying they're moving forward," said Drea. "If these farmers are right, if they really have found this way—with [a] non-mRNA [approach], because you know $600 million just went to Moderna to find an mRNA vaccine for the avian flu—maybe it's bad for someone's business for them to move forward with their ostriches."