B.C. ostrich farm is 'ground-zero for change' as family reels from shooting cull

EDGEWOOD, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA - Katie Pasitney, whose mother co-owns the British Columbia ostrich farm where hundreds of the birds were shot dead in a cull ordered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, says she is focused on creating change for other farmers.

Standing on the highway overlooking the field where the cull took place Thursday night, Pasitney says the CFIA's so-called stamping-out policy is "broken" as it fails to prevent mounting outbreaks of avian influenza in B.C. and other parts of Canada.

She says the farm near Edgewood in southeastern B.C. is "ground zero for change" in outbreak response, but adds her family will "never recover from this."

The owners of Universal Ostrich Farms had been fighting the cull order issued during an avian flu outbreak last New Year's E