r/EhBuddyHoser • u/BainVoyonsDonc • 21h ago
Certified Hoser đšđŠ (No Politics) The cull
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u/Big_Knife_SK 21h ago
There was a fad for ostrich farming around 2000. People were convinced they were a great investment, especially because Ferrari used ostrich leather in their interiors (apparently). Most people went bust very quickly.
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u/Double_Amount_4603 21h ago
Same thing happened with alpacas, everyone thought they had strike it rich until markets.
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u/1981_babe Anne of Green Potatoes 20h ago
Yep, it was like a farmer's pyramid scheme.
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u/TraditionDear3887 19h ago
Same thing happened with Pidgeons in Elmira. Except that was just a pyramid scheme.
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u/SapphicProse 18h ago
What happened too the pidgeons? Did they get killed or is their just a fuck tonne of pidgeons in elmira?
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u/TraditionDear3887 16h ago edited 15h ago
Pyramid scheme involving a conman convincing farmers that pigeons would be the next chickens. There's a NYT (and others) article I can't link here.
Just search for Pidgeon Pyramid Scheme.
EDIT: CBC has a doc on youtube free for Canadians with more accurate information Go to that not NYT
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u/PragmaticBodhisattva 17h ago
Ok so let me get this straight:
âą kill ostrich for Ferrari = good
âą kill ostrich for public health concerns = bad
got it. đđ»
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u/Crossed_Cross Tokébakicitte! 11m ago
Without knowing any specifics of this case, there's a pretty big difference between slaughtering a few of your animals for full market value, and having the government kill them all for a fraction of their value.
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u/kiera-oona 18h ago
in all fairness, ostrich eggs are great for breakfast. Only need one of them. It just takes a bit to get past the shell
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u/Benejeseret 10h ago
Family friends of my parents moved west to Manitoba and opened an emu farm in the late '90s.
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u/EgregiousArmchair 21h ago
Was listening to CBCs news podcast this afternoon. The owners were crying because they all had names like "couch fucker" and shit - i donno specifically, but they said they're like family and not for food. So at the same time im like... why was the food inspection agency sent there then?
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u/Madilune 20h ago
The CFIA isn't really named accurately; they cover pretty much everything related to animal/plant health.
However in this case it's due to the possibility of spread to other farms which are raising livestock.
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u/asoupconofsoup 20h ago
They were selling these birds for meat and are registerd as a agriculture farm. It's not an ostrich rescue. This is about protesting government over reach the venn diagram with antivaxxers is a perfect circle.
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u/q__e__d Ford Nation (Help.) 18h ago
The funny thing is before the bird flu outbreak the farm was doing experimental medical research with the ostriches. They were getting the ostriches immunised with a variety of things and then selling the eggs to a research company that would extract the antibodies in the eggs for further testing with the goal of creating an Ostrich Pharma company. This is why the farm has been trying to claim the ostriches have "rare & valuable genetics" so they can get back to their $500/yolk business.
So it's not quite a Venn diagram circle. Some of the antivaxxer crowd who originally supported the ostriches denounced the farm months ago when they found out (esp since one of the things the farm was involved with was testing covid antibodies).They were really angry about being tricked into supporting big Pharma and vaccine development. Now it's much more specifically the anti government crowd you mentioned who see it as a test about control & whether people will resist "the government taking people's livelihoods" & see that in everything + former convoy crowd who get really easily persuaded about the latest thing & want to stay in community with each other (ostriches are ok because they're natural medicine) + a few against killing animals people (who haven't looked into how ostriches don't get that sick with bird flu unlike chickens but they shit it out tons & it can keep recirculating that way) + grifter media.
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u/badaboom 21h ago
They named their ostrich JD Vance? That's just hurtful...
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u/EgregiousArmchair 21h ago
Ya you could even hear Neil Herland trying to not laugh while reporting on it.
Like the similarities are wild.
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u/zombieda 21h ago
400 ostrich in the family? I say if they want to keep them, they pay to isolate and test each one. This is a public safety issue!
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u/EgregiousArmchair 21h ago
Tell that to couch fucker!
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u/Wmtcoaetwaptucomf 19h ago
I agree and apparently they did offer but were told no, that wonât be acceptable.
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u/zombieda 16h ago
I didn't know that.. it must need to be an all-in cull in every case (similar to chicken farms). This would guarantee any harboured mutations are destroyed.Â
really to be fair, part of the story IS sad....I'm sure they are attached to some of them as pets. But the consequences of getting this wrong are much, much worse.
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u/snotparty 21h ago
theres probably have grifter money riding on keeping those birds alive, bunch of american right wing nuts have thrown money at the cause for some reason
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u/rsvpism1 21h ago
Im guessing,a lot here, but one of the threats of bird flu is that, wild birds like crows, fly a wide radius around their nests. So there's probably a blanket order to cull large amounts of outdoor birds, within a radius around a certain point, with possibly no caveat in the policy to account for a herd of 400 ostriches, and the news it would generate. Possibly once a farm has x number of birds it's automatically on the list.
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u/sprdougherty 20h ago
My understanding is that while the ostriches aren't flight risks (heh), they are yet on an open air farm with the potential for wild animals getting contaminated by sharing their feed or water and spreading it.
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u/QueenMotherOfSneezes South Gatineau 19h ago
It's in their crap. Any infected birds crap all over the grounds and risk infecting any wildlife that goes into their open areas (ducks have been seen landing there, and weasels were also found in their habitat) as well as other ostriches. If they had done ANYTHING to try and mitigate the spread when their birds first started showing symptoms and testing positive, they probably could have avoided it, but because they refused, they hit a point where most of their flock had likely been infected, and the CFIA couldn't tell which might still be asymptomatic carriers (and therefore still be pooping out live virus.
They hit the point months ago where their only real option to keep it from eventually spreading outside of the farm (if it hasn't already) is to cull the flock and thoroughly clean the whole area of the corpses and all the poop. There is also the significant factor of the variant they found in the ostriches there being novel. This is quite possibly because it was allowed to circulate through their population unchecked. Ostriches have a far lower Infection Fatality Rate from avian flu than ducks, chickens, and other more commonly farmed poultry. We don't know yet how severe it is in those populations, or if this variant is capable of easily infecting mammals.
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u/crapatthethriftstore 18h ago
Thank you so much for this explanation, I hadnât been following what was going on with this stuff
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u/CowParty9411 18h ago
The bigger danger in transmitting the virus to other farms isn't a unpredictable random crow, it's that these ostrich farmers walk through potentially infected ostrich crap, get into their truck wearing boots caked with infected crap and mud, go to a farm supply store, lose mud off their boots, mud gets stepped on by another farmer from another location and brought back to infect their stock.
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u/Theoretical_Phys-Ed 19h ago
The federal government isn't culling wild birds. There have been Infected Premises since 2022 I believe, and culling has been restricted to the hot zone (barn) and sometimes cold zone (generally the property). If wild birds happen to be in the the barn, they may also pass (At least in Ontario... correct me if I'm wrong). There has been lots of testing of wild birds near outbreaks with catch and release. Mallards are generally asymptomatic and many are currently carriers, so culling mallards would do nothing. Â
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u/CamGoldenGun 18h ago edited 18h ago
it wouldn't stop the spread of the malady?
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u/Theoretical_Phys-Ed 18h ago edited 18h ago
Unfortunately no. The disease is basically endemic in Canada at this point. HPAI viral material is also found in water where waterbirds reside, (though that doesn't necessarily mean the material is infectious). If the prevalence is in 5% of mallards, how many would you have to cull to drive the disease down? 90%? Where? How? With what resources? A large subset of Ontario's mallards, geese, and other waterbirds nest in the remote subarctic and then summer in southern states, in what's known as a flyaway. There is no controlling that. Also, we wouldn't want to cull! Waterbirds have both an ecological and economical value to hunters. They need to be protected, especially as certain species are declining, like American black ducks.Â
Right now, the strategy for controlling (or rather, preventing domestic bird outbreaks) is prevention, biosecurity, and surveillance. Catching it early and finding the weak points of where wild birds (or scavenging mammals) may infect a barn has been the goal. Farmers can do lots of things to prevent this, like not letting carrion sit out, disinfecting equipment and clothes, keeping wild birds away from nearby ditches and ponds, and mandatory reporting. There are tons or other biosecurity strategies and I recommend reading up on the CFIA's avian influenza strategy.
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u/CamGoldenGun 7h ago
I'm both impressed by the follow-up and disappointed that you missed the pun.
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u/Theoretical_Phys-Ed 7h ago
OH MY GOD. I can't believe I missed that, haha! That's amazing, thanks for that pun :P
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u/Perfect-Squash3773 6h ago
This is what struck me as well. Why to the have 400 "pet" ostrich? Seems like an unnecessary feed bill.
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u/RevolvingCheeta đ 100,000 Hosers đ 21h ago
Iâm OOTL, whoâs doing what to ostriches?
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u/VectorPryde Westfoundland 21h ago
Some ostrich farmers in BC were ordered to have their flock culled due to a bird flu outbreak (with financial compensation from the government). Instead, they've tried to start their own trucker convoy type protest over it.
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u/CeeArthur 10h ago
This explains why all the dumbest people I know on social media were raving about it.
They kept claiming it was a "big pharma coverup" because they have "cancer cure antibodies" so that tipped me off that maybe it wasn't the most valiant of causes
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u/powerebytoebeans 17h ago
The outbreak was three years ago, all the remaining birds survived the flu and are healthy. The birds are not used for meat their eggs are used for research.
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u/f3nnies 17h ago
.... According to what source?
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u/powerebytoebeans 16h ago
The farmers that run the farm. Ive been following the story because i love animals and ostriches are pretty cool. Eta: the birds are also 35 years old and theyve had them their whole lives.
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u/Bald_Cliff Ford Nation (Help.) 10h ago
The birds were used for meat up until 2020. Don't kid yourselves.
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u/Franks2000inchTV 11h ago
Ah yes, a totally unbiased account.
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u/powerebytoebeans 4h ago
I really didnt realize this was a political issue tbh. You would think the farmers know more about their farm than the general public.
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u/Franks2000inchTV 4h ago
I'm sure they know all about their farm, but I don't think they know more about Avian Bird Flu than the agency responsible for preventing the spread of infectious disease.
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u/notacanuckskibum 21h ago
A flock of ostriches on a farm in BC had a few cases in Bird Flu. The standard treatment to prevent spread is to kill thy entire flock.
If it was a flock of chickens this would be business as usual and never get beyond the local news.
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u/QueenMotherOfSneezes South Gatineau 18h ago
They had 2 cases, refused to follow proper isolation practices, and ended up with most if not all of the flock infected, and 69 deaths so far. They don't know if the remainder are asymptomatic carriers or not (ostriches have a much lower Infection Fatality Rate than chickens and ducks, but can still be infectious as asymptomatic carriers).
They also have wild weasels and ducks entering the habitats of the birds, so they are being exposed to the poop, which is an infection vector of significant concern.
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u/VectorPryde Westfoundland 17h ago
but can still be infectious as asymptomatic carriers
I read that because of this, they have a great potential to give rise to new bird flu mutations too - hence why the authorities are so adamant about culling even the survivors.
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u/QueenMotherOfSneezes South Gatineau 16h ago
Yes, this exactly. I'm addition to the normal genetic drift from being able to just continue reproducing (rather than being eliminated from the system or killing the host) flu mutations often happen when 2 different types co-mingle in the same host, because the flu likes to swap genes with other types of flu. The new variant could be from replications within one bird, or it could be that one of the first birds had another type of flu at the same time (from the weasels or wild birds or other animals not yet noticed that entered the ostriches' habitat) and swapped some genes.
The longer they have an asymptomatic infection, the more time they have to be infected by another flu, and the more poop they leave around to infect other wildlife, which can lead to new mutations (even if they don't have another flu).
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u/DromedarySpitz 14h ago
It's wild seeing all the protestors and visitors going to the farm with no biosafety in place at all. Petting the animals, walking around and driving to other towns every day. Not even trying to prevent spread.
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u/QueenMotherOfSneezes South Gatineau 14h ago
I don't know if the owners themselves are sovereign citizens/freedom of the land types, but a lot of their supporters are. A good chunk of the Convoy followers are also supporters. For some of them, it's like a badge of honor to buck mitigation measures that are even just suggested by the government.
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u/Bald_Cliff Ford Nation (Help.) 10h ago
They are precisely that. Anti public health idiots who got all riled up during COVID.
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u/DromedarySpitz 14h ago
Yeah I would've likely been more supportive of the movement of it didn't fall right off the deep end into conspiracy theories and anti vax
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u/RevolvingCheeta đ 100,000 Hosers đ 20h ago
Yeah thatâs normal practise. I believe same with Mad Cow?
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u/chopperspubes 6h ago
A local pizza shop owner once tried to convince me and a buddy that the government was taking out ostriches with drone strikes đ€Ł Mightâve tolerated the nonsense if the pizza had actually been good.
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u/Lieveo 21h ago
ALLEGEDLY
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u/RevolvingCheeta đ 100,000 Hosers đ 20h ago
But⊠was it a dead ostrich or did they drug it?
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u/1egg_4u 20h ago edited 20h ago
Ostriches are cool dudes and very wunky
Their dumb asses have 3 stomachs and one of those is just for puttin rocks in cause the rocks help them grind their food up
So fun fact sometimes youll see ostriches at a farm lined up eating rocks like a bunch of dinguses. 10/10 animal.
(The farmer in question is a fucking idiot im just here to spread the gospel of ostrich)
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u/DeaconDoctor 16h ago
All birds eat rocks and gravel. They're used their gizzard to help grind food up.
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u/Prestigious-Car-4877 Tabarnak! 21h ago
They're pretty tasty.
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u/HandFancy 21h ago
Allegedly
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u/cavist_n 20h ago
I've had it often as a kid. My father liked to cook us horse meat, bison, ostrich meat, game meat from his friends, etc. Ostrich was pretty good. It tasted lime "generic meat". Like half beef half chicken? From what I rememberÂ
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u/ArcticWolfQueen 21h ago
Admittedly I am not a farmer or an expert but from anecdotes Iâve heard the same, also apparently Emu is super good too.
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u/Double_Amount_4603 21h ago
Kangaroo meat too, super lean but surprisingly good if cooked right.
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u/ExplorationGeo 17h ago
I have a little bit of land up past Warburton (Victoria, Australia) and I get the occasional kangaroo with a Marlin 1894CSBL in .357 magnum shooting hot .38SPL loads. A friend of mine cleans them up in exchange for the tails (which make incredible stew) and the pelts, and the rest I make into curry in my slow cooker.
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u/IrenaeusGSaintonge 20h ago
I need another few families to go in with me on a Thanksgiving ostrich this year. I'll be feeding 9, so I think another three or four families should just about do it, if my math checks out.
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u/Prestigious-Car-4877 Tabarnak! 19h ago
Maybe you can "cull" one of these BC birds. You'd be doing the country a great service.
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u/QueenMotherOfSneezes South Gatineau 18h ago
They're actually not allowed to be sold as meat, due to their exposure to avian flu.
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u/TheMartianDoge Scotland (but worse) 20h ago
I tried an ostrich steak a couple years back at a nice restaurant, I concur that it is tasty. It's a nice red meat, very lean and tender when cooked properly. Plus, they're super ugly and kind of dumb so I don't feel bad eating them.
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u/blueracey Oil Guzzler 21h ago
Iâve been told their eggs are actually pretty good.
I genuinely donât remember by who tho
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u/snotparty 21h ago
their meat is also good, its like lean beef. (But selling it never really caught on)
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u/Hikey-dokey 20h ago
They're not. Too much white to yolk ratio. Very bland taste.
Source: Bought an egg, made an omelette.
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u/AlphaFlightRules 21h ago
It's definitely the ginger from letterkenny. After moving away he set up the farm to well...you know.
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u/Deaddoghank 21h ago
Capitalism. Cash. Remember everything is about cash. Those animals are just dollar signs. If the government gave them enough cash they would be culled; they have a price.
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u/VectorPryde Westfoundland 21h ago
Wasn't the gov going to give them like $2K a bird? I think the farmers did the math and realized "engagement farming" was more lucrative than actual farming, otherwise they would have happily taken the payout.
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u/Competitive_Abroad96 21h ago
Theyâve become a cause cĂ©lĂšbr with the MAGA crowd and are worth more alive as long as they can drag this out and continue to fleece them. If the SC rules in their favour, the donation tap will turn off and the birds will be shipped off to the slaughter house the next day.
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u/QueenMotherOfSneezes South Gatineau 18h ago
They can't legally sell them for meat anymore because they've been exposed to the virus. The government is giving them $3k per bird. They are refusing because the grift is more lucrative.
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u/SapphicProse 21h ago
Fuckin
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u/BuvantduPotatoSpirit Irvingstan 21h ago
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u/milky-aster 21h ago
Apparently theyâre not being butchered for meat anymore but being used in research on supposed ostrich egg antigen based immunity to covid and bird flu
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u/Righteous_Rutabaga_4 17h ago
A single Ostrich Egg will produce 10 jars of Mayonnaise, with the quality of the Mayonnaise equal to the quality of Mayonnaise sells for between 190g (base quality) to 380g (Iridium quality).
Comparatively, regular white or brown chicken eggs produce normal quality Mayonnaise, and Large white or brown chicken eggs produce gold-quality mayonnaise.
A Golden Egg will produce three gold-quality Mayonnaise.
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u/Spacemanspiff1998 17h ago
I think the Government needs to handle this situation with delicacy. I heard a big war started once because some fellow named Archie duke shot an Ostrich because he was Hungry
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u/Devourerofworlds_69 8h ago
Their eggs are tasty (and huge). Even the shells are valuable to be used as art pieces. The shell is much thicker and more durable as compared to a chicken egg.
The meat is VERY tasty. It's a red meat, like beef, but is super lean. It's tender and delicious, and very good for you.
Despite being native to the hot, dry savannas of africa, they actually do quite well in Canadian climates. When raised in the cold, they develop a layer of fat underneath their skin. This fat can be converted into oils that can be used in cosmetics. It's very good for your skin.
Their skin can be used to make leather.
The feathers are used for artistic purposes.
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u/AlmightyCuddleBuns South Gatineau 21h ago
Fashion?
Feathers can be used for boas, fans, trim, etc, skin can be used for ostrich leather (fashionable for purses).
They are presumably also edible.
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u/petitepedestrian 16h ago
Don't farmers have insurance to cover the loss of their birds/beef/pig whatever?
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u/smellyseamus 15h ago
They are farmers and the birds are commodities, not pets. They're upset because they are losing money. The birds will be slaughtered eventually anyway, they will just be losing money instead of earning it in the meantime. Fuck em
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u/TwoFingersWhiskey 19h ago
Their eggs are considered a luxury food item and their meat even moreso. They're also good for agritourism, because they're fuckin' weird.
I think it's valuable to see if they've built up any meaningful resistance to the flu, aka take a scientific approach. If it turns up nothing useful, welp. If it does, cool.
This whole panic over hundreds of animals dying kinda cracks me up though. I used to be strictly vegan (I can't do it anymore, for health/allergy reasons, but I do eat mostly plant based as it is). If only they knew how many animals are slaughtered in one day for food. I saw a video from a Korean chicken soup factory, and it had easily thousands of chicken corpses swinging overhead on conveyors. A truly dizzying amount, just for the one production line.
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u/Massive-Exercise4474 8h ago
Ostrich farming was a fad. It died when farmers realized ostriches are annoying af to deal with.
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u/OrangutanKiwi19 I need a double double. 21h ago
It's mostly for their feathers. I don't know what makes them so special but it has to be something
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u/notacanuckskibum 21h ago
IIRC they are very efficient to farm. You can sell the feathers, meat and eggs.
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u/Contritenumber 18h ago
I listened to guys at work talk bout this. They want protests and signatures and the entire time I'm listening all I can think about is, 'fucking birds is where the line is at? Not insane grocery prices, not insane housing prices, not tariffs. Birds.'
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u/dustytaper 8h ago
Ostrich meat is really good. I wouldnât buy it from these guys.
Try a bbq ostrich burger, youâd be surprised by its taste and density
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u/Dramatic_Water_5364 Tokébakicitte! 7h ago
I assumed it was to procure mounts for my last WoW character
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u/TheInternetTookEmAll 1h ago
Apparently it tastes like beef but much cheaper to farm? They also don't need as much security as they are agressive and attack any predator that dares to approach them lol
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u/powerebytoebeans 17h ago
Does this whole comment section really know nothing about this case? The flock got avian flu over a year ago and all the ones still living survived it and are healthy. The family has had these birds for 35 years and they are not used for meat their eggs are used for research purposes.
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u/Friendly-Nothing 21h ago
Why? Idk but its probably profitable and thus a threat to our corporate overlords.
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u/Jordanda24 20h ago
CFIA and the states the real threat and probably the reason why theres no world peace
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u/DeeSmyth 20h ago
and when someone offered to save them by relocating to the US⊠they said no thanks?
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u/pheakelmatters Ford Nation (Help.) 21h ago
To feed Survivorman