We just don’t know at this point whether the Universal Ostrich Farm’s ostriches, with possible or likely H5N1 antibodies, remaining alive would have outweighed the risk of an avion flu outbreak, and whether that risk was large or small. Maybe it was inexperienced, globalist CFIA bureaucracy bending to globalist standards for animal care, or maybe it was all based on solid science. It appears that there are investigations into these very questions.
However, the question of the way the ostriches were slaughtered is not purely a question of veterinary medical expertise. It is also a question of whether our Canadian taxpayer dollars were used to ensure the most humane slaughter possible to our Canadian standards for animals.
In a situation a few years regarding the humane treatment of animals, I stomached my way through the research of live animal slaughter in this post, “The Politics of Skinning a Cow”. It was after some Islamists decided to skin a cow during Eid in backyard Ontario – and posted their video of the skinning online. Eid requires the animal to be alive when slaughtered.
In that incident it became clear that Canadian and American veterinarians tip toe around this religious exemption to the humane treatment of animals. It was nevertheless illegal having been done in a backyard instead of a regulated facility. I would not recommend reading that post unless you are prepared for what is highly disturbing information for most people, as maybe also the following on the use of firearms to slaughter live animals.
In the case of the slaughter of the ostriches, based on practices explicitly stated by the American Veterinary Medical Association and implicitly by the Canadian Veterinary Association, shooting animals with firearms even with very large heads has inherent risks.
I’m no expert, but when the AVMA says that if you are using the firearms method (instead of the surefire method of transporting the animals to an abattoir where they are first stunned in an enclosed area to prevent fear and pain) the animal must be shot in the brain to cause their immediate death and therefore not cause their fear and pain.
Looking at the size of an Ostrich’s head and knowing these firearms experts were shooting from a distance outside of a pen (versus the stunning method which is directly pressed to the head), they would have to be really expert firearms experts to shoot a flock of over three hundred birds in the brain on the first try.
“The use of firearms should be limited to personnel trained in the use of firearms and only in jurisdictions that allow for legal firearm use. The safety of personnel, the public, and other animals nearby should be considered. In [meat] packing plants, a fully enclosed box that will contain a bullet that may perforate through the skull or ricochet is strongly recommended. In applying a gunshot to the head for the purposes of slaughter for captive animals, the firearm should be aimed so that the projectile enters the brain, causing instant loss of consciousness.”120–125 AVMA “Humane Slaughter Guidelines 2024”
The question that Canadians may be left with, that is debatable outside of requiring anyone with a scientific expertise, is whether the CFIA did everything it could to choose the most humane method based on Canadian standards.
Ostriches are obviously large animals that can be aggressive and require experts who know what they are doing to even get close.
That does not excuse using the most humane method possible, including the cost of tranquilizing, transporting to an abattoir, stunning and putting to humane death these large animals that have far more complex lives than we knew previously: besides pain, animals experience fear not just by their own death, but by the death of their flock members according to recent animal research.
We simply don’t know at this stage whether our Canadian standards for the humane treatment of animals were invaded by global standards at the Universal Ostrich Farm. Either way, Canadians need to develop antibodies to any invading pathogens that threaten our respect for life both human and animal.
“He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” Immanuel Kant
It has to be said, it was the Americans who repeatedly offered to bring the ostriches to the US where they could live and perhaps have lived to be a great benefit to humans.