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I personally do not advocate any process or procedure contained in any of my Blogs. Information presented here is not intended to provide legal or lawful advice, nor medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, cure, or prevent any disease. Views expressed are for educational purposes only.
I surround, protect, purify and make harmless the following in-formation.
Spirit, a healthy ostrich held under CFIA custody, died alone and in pain
By Connie Shields
Oct 07, 2025
Spirit was not a danger to anyone. She wasn’t sick. She was injured. She was an inmate — confined behind a barricade of hay bales, denied care, and cut off from the people who loved her — waiting on death row under federal “disease control.”
Spirit’s Final Days
In early September, dozens of CFIA vehicles and police units descended on Universal Ostrich Farms like they were responding to the crime of the century. Flashing lights cut through the night. Officers in biohazard suits, trucks, and heavy equipment filled the narrow rural road leading to the farm. Neighbors described miles of vehicles stretching toward Edgewood — all to enforce a cull order over a virus allegedly detected in two dead birds nearly a year earlier.
Inside the farm, the scene felt surreal — a family-run operation suddenly treated like a national security threat. The birds, frightened by drones and low-flying helicopters, panicked. One snapped his neck resulting in his death, and a 20 year old hen named Spirit, ran into a fence and was seriously injured.
Her caregivers, Karen and Katie, begged to tend to her wounds. CFIA officials refused, insisting Spirit was “on the mend.” Karen immediately recognized the signs of severe dehydration and distress. She begged CFIA to let her help—to administer electrolytes that could save Spirit’s life. When they refused to let her near the bird, she offered another solution: she provided the agency with a bag of electrolyte solution and tubing, pleading with them to at least administer it themselves.
CFIA officials assured Karen and Dave that the treatment had been given.
Relieved, they held on to hope that Spirit might recover.
Days later, that hope shattered. A supporter visiting the site provided photographic proof showing the bags of lifesaving electrolytes dumped on the ground—unused.
Spirit had been left to die slowly from dehydration and stress, alone behind the CFIA’s barricade. They asked for proof that she was ok, and were denied. Days passed. Again a supporter provided the photographic evidence, the truth surfaced: Spirit was dying.
And then, she was gone. Continues at https://unlockalberta.substack.com/p/when-an-inmate-dies-in-custody-the
A tribute to Spirit
Without prejudice and without recourse
Doreen Agostino
Our Greater Destiny Blog
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