• Top Stories of 2025 • Ostrich farm owners once connected to ‘abusive’ $20-million investment scheme shed crocodile tears over birds destined for meat processing
Number 1 story of 2025 about ‘freedom fighters’ hooked in by Universal Ostrich Farms’ calls to save birds realized it wasn’t about animal rights & research: this was a meat-and-oil operation all along
›› Something Worth Reading, the only truly local news outlet in the Fraser Valley, looks at the 10 most read stories of 2025 as we wrap up our first year sharing more than 400 stories with 300,000 unique users ‹‹
Writing independent news in the Fraser Valley with a focus on criminal justice matters, and a particular focus on serious crimes in Chilliwack, if you asked me in January what would be the biggest story of the year on this site, an ostrich farm in the Kootenays would not have been it.
But here we are.
By an exponential number, the story I wrote on Sept. 26, 2025 about the now globally infamous Universal Ostrich Farm owner’s $20-million investment scheme two decades prior received the most pageviews of the year, by a huge margin. As in, it had approximately four times as many views as most of the stories in the bottom five of the top 10 and twice as many as the URL with the second number of views, which was the next story I did on the ostrich farm on Sept. 30.
When the story about the ostrich owners’ fight against the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s (CFIA) order to cull their birds after an outbreak of avian influenza first came out in January 2025, my immediate instinct was that something about these people was hinky.
I actually first wrote about the farm back then as a sort of meta-story addressing logical fallacies and media literacy.
I saw a Rebel News article the same day I saw a Globe and Mail report, the headlines and angles to the stories illustrating an important if obvious point about the media. Namely, it served as an example of how any event or circumstance or issue addressed by media outlets can be approached from a great many angles, some with inherent biases, and varying levels of reliability. This can lead to knowledge and truth or misinformation and confusion.
The owners of Universal Ostrich Farms then spent months helping foster a growing circus of nutters who camped out on the property, shared anti-science do-your-own-research memes, conspiracy theories, threatened and bullied local businesses, and posted videos dripping with performative outrage about a topic they knew little about.
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my
Why did the story take off the way it did? I’m not entirely sure, but it’s a question I was asked by a Vancouver film studio working on a possible Netflix documentary about the ostrich farm that I may be participating in in 2026.
I figure there are four elements that made this such a compelling story.
1. People love animal stories. Period. No one seems to get particularly aroused by stories about cows or pigs or chickens, but any story involving wild animals in weird scenarios or pets in distress get huge traffic. So a story about government involvement in an order to kill non-traditional farm animals is sure to spark widespread interest. These are ostriches after all, birds native to Africa not southeastern British Columbia. The story would have equal or greater interest if this was a farm with alligators or kangaroos or zebras.
2. Coming up on six years after the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic where conspiracy theories were rife, our world is fertile soil for the planting seeds of libertarian victimization and government over-reach.
3. Then there was the history of the owner’s participation in multi-million-dollar financial schemes involving an ostrich farms more than 20 years prior, an obvious news hook.
4. But the kicker was when even some of the anti-vaxxer-style nutters who first jumped to their defence realized that Karen Espersen and Dave Bilinski were not animal-loving ostrich keepers. They were just grifters whose long-term investment strategy for an ostrich meat-and-oil production company got tanked by a virus so they flipped the script turning it to anti-government, pro-animal, woe-is-the-poor farmer narrative.
The scheme
Espersen and Bilinski painted themselves as devoted farmers contributing to “groundbreaking research on the robust immune systems of these remarkable creatures.”
Some people donating money to support the fight against the cull, however, actually did a bit of their own research and shared results. Turns out, back in the late 1990s, Dave Bilinski looked to his cousin Danny Bilinski to help raise money for an Alberta ostrich farm. The two then launched a farm in British Columbia, which was the birth of Columbia Ostrich Farm in Edgewood, the precursor to Universal Ostrich Farms.
Dan and Dave were directors of the ostrich farm, which they used via a venture capital firm to raise millions of dollars to expand the business. They exaggerated revenue potential to investors, hid Dave’s financial problems, which included three mortgages registered against the ostrich farm that were in default. By 1998, the entire Columbia Ostrich Farm operation, including the buildings and birds, was at risk of being seized by creditors.
“Again, Dave Bilinski pressed his cousin to help him out,” that according to a scathing B.C. Securities Commission (BCSC) decision from 2002.
The BCSC found that Danny Bilinski and his partner Robert Pierre Lamblin peddled high-risk investments, such as the ostrich farm, that were unsuitable to people with conservative investment strategies, including widows and elderly investors.
The two pitched securities by claiming they could minimize income tax, receive monthly income, and earn double-digit returns with minimal risk.
Instead, almost 200 clients invested $20 million in a “particularly abusive” scheme given Bilinski’s and Lamblin’s conflicts of interest as they “were driven to promote and sell their own product. They had a vested interest to not make any other investments available” to their clients.
The cull fight
On Christmas morning 2024, Espersen and Bilinski noticed signs of illness in birds on and called the veterinarian. In all, 69 ostriches died from H5N1 between Dec. 26, 2024, and Jan. 19, 2025. On Dec. 30, 2024, the CFIA ordered 400 ostriches to be culled at Universal Ostrich Farms.
Since this is a commercial bird farm, according to the agriculture food rules in Canada, the next step to deal with an avian influenza outbreak based on international standards is to cull the animals to protect the industry. The CFIA’s policy “aims to protect both public and animal health, as well as minimize impacts on the $6.8 billion domestic poultry industry, and the Canadian economy.”
The policy known as “stamping out” as defined by the World Health Organization is meant to support Canadian families and poultry farmers whose livelihoods depend on maintaining international market access. This was not a government conspiracy of the elites to control every aspect of our lives. As usual, the truth is much more boring, as the CFIA’s policy in dealing with avian flu is to euthanize the entire flock and thoroughly disinfect the premises humanely.
“While depopulation can be a distressing outcome for an animal owner, the CFIA works with poultry farmers to develop the most appropriate plan, see that it is completed humanely and to support producers in returning to operations as quickly as possible.”
It’s unfortunate, sad, catastrophic sometimes but it’s not complicated. If you are involved in commercial bird farming in British Columbia, Canada, any country in the world, follow the international standards enforced by your nation, and all is good.
But the ostriches that didn’t die recovered, so Espersen, believing she knew more than the agriculture industry and food scientists, decided that meant the rest had acquired herd immunity. An expression we all learned in 2021 and 2022, "herd immunity," proved to be a pandemic dog whistle that lit a fire under the butts of some of the fringiest folks in Alberta and B.C.
People tricked by the grift flocked to the farm, participated in music fundraisers, camped out and protested, assaulted neighbours, lit hay bales on fire, threatened local businesses contracted to help with CFIA’s work, and helped out the owners who generally proved themselves to be dysfunctional farmers, bad neighbours, and financial scammers.
On Sept. 24, 2025, the Supreme Court of Canada issued an interim stay to the planned cull of 400 or so ostriches, which temporarily halted matters while the owners appealed. It became a circus in the small rural community of Edgewood where neighbours wanted it to be over with, local businesses were being threatened with boycotts and violence, and the whole show started to garner global attention, including from U.S. MAGA administration health officials Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz.
For eight months, according to the far-right conspiracy theory media, shock and outrage spread because of the imminent genocide of exotic ostriches with natural immunity, fake PCR tests, Moderna's $590 million grant to develop mRNA vaccines for bird flu, and how if they can do this, next you know the government is coming for Fido.
Memes and AI-generated images went from the inane to the ignorant, culminating some might suggest in what would have been funny if it wasn't so offensive, a moronic slap in the face to Canadian military veterans, a "Lest We Forget" for "National Ostrich Day," invented nonsense set five days before Remembrance Day.
Folks at Ezra Levant’s far right Rebel News were in heaven. Anti-government conspiracies to share! Reporter Drea Humphrey, known for her histrionic flame-fanning style of journalism seems to have moved to Edgewood to keep it ablaze.
But then even some of the fringe-y freedom fighters started to clue into the history of the farm and the potential for financial impropriety.
“I went into this searching for truth to support the farmers, my heart was touched by the story and what I thought was government over-reach,” a former Universal Ostrich Farm supporter posted on Facebook on Sept. 25, 2025.
“[W]hat I found and they do not mention is disgusting.”
That from a Kazz Nowlin on Facebook, a self-described “freedom fighter” who then called the owners “proven scam artists” who are going to make right-wing liberty seekers such as him look bad.
“They ripped off people since the beginning,” Nowlin posted, later discussing with me briefly via email. “Go see why the locals all around them do not support them ... I supported this too, till I actually used my head and read the facts and compared it to the lies.”
So Bilinski and Espersen tried to raise money a different way, through sharing links to fundraising pages. Through their own website and elsewhere, people were entering credit card numbers and donating thousands of dollars to the ostrich farm owners. Former Member of Parliament, Conservative Derek Sloan created a fundraising page where people were urged to donate up to $2,500 to the ostrich farm owners.
A question as to where the donations were going was not answered by Sloan, Espersen, or farm operator Katie Pasitney who has been posting constantly about the fight.
Meanwhile, the RCMP responded to threats of burning down businesses people think might be involved in the CFIA’s cull. One hotel in Vernon said they were getting 50 to 60 harassing calls on every shift because it is where RCMP officers are staying.
“Over the last couple days, we’ve seen that businesses who have contracts or have business with the CFIA operation have received a number of threats,” RCMP Staff. Sgt. Kris Clark told Global News on Thursday. “[T]hose opposed to the CFIA cull order have been using language to intimidate some businesses, and that intimidation has escalated now to some very serious threats, both against people, their livelihood, their life, a well as property.”
It got worse
While all this was going on, what received almost zero media attention until Something Worth Reading posted on Sept. 30, 2025, is that as recently as May 14, 2025, the owners of Universal Ostrich Farms were promoting a “vertical integrated business plan” to “launch government approved meat-processing and oil-rendering facilities to cater to the world demand for ostrich meat and contracts already established.”
Meat? Oil? We were told this was about beautiful pet birds and vaccine research using eggs?
No. Several months after the cull order and well into the hysteria, Universal Ostrich Farms still had a bold plan for an ostrich meat farm looking to capitalize on a less energy intensive, healthier meat alternative to beef.
Exhibit A:
Archived screen grabs from Universal Ostrich Farm's website as of May 14, 2025, one day after a court rejected their appeal to stop the cull of their 400 ostriches and 11 days before the website scrubbed these promotions to be all about saving the birds from "murder." (Source: WayBackMachine Internet Archive - Universalostrich.ca)
Espersen and Bilinski are said to be the owners of the farm, although actual ownership might be in question since Bilinski has defaulted on at least one mortgage leveraged against the property and filed for personal bankruptcy.
Daughter Katie Pasitney was the most active on social media fuelling the outrage and begging for money to help for their legal bills. As the most vocal participant in the farm’s activities, she’s the one who claimed the farm pivoted away from meat sales more than five years prior, which would mean early or pre-2020. This is simply not true as can be seen from internet archive grabs of the website as of May 14, 2025.
That and court filings in early 2025 that explicitly describe Universal Ostrich Farm’s operations as including “raising birds for slaughter and meat” as a core activity. But 11 days later on May 25, 2025, the “universalostrich.ca” web page redirected to “saveourostriches.com,” posting a very different message. Suddenly owners Dave Bilinski and Karen Espersen were no longer looking for money to invest in their ostrich meat business, they were looking for money to save their “beloved ostriches.” By this writing (Dec. 31, 2025), the link now redirects to "justicefortheostriches.com" where they point out that they lost the fight against CFIA, the birds have been destroyed, they are devastated but, hey, you can donate. Donations were just under $200,000 at last check.
In the subsequent months, the page updated visitors on the thousands of dollars raised, and promoted a concert that includes far-right anti-science activist Tamara Lich who was facing up to seven years in prison for her part in the trucker convoy that caused chaos in Ottawa.
Exhibit B:
From butchery to bullshit
Images on TikTok of Karen Espersen holding a large knife in a kitchen over large chunks of ostrich body parts, flesh and bone, are incongruous with her teary-eyed entreaties before TV cameras on the farm. (Not to mention a children's book teaching kids about the bravery of the ostriches.)
Then there is a post from a Universal Ostrich Farm subsidiary with a logo for “Bizarre Bites - Pets Gone Wild” on social media account, tagging Katie Pasitney bragging about how delicious the “ostrich knuckles” look as a treat for their dogs seen gnawing on the flesh and bones.
It became impossible to reconcile the owners’ crocodile tears because of CFIA’s order to cull their birds claiming they are sometimes beloved pets, sometimes precious animals used in research, when this has been a meat farm and processing site for most of its history.
It’s all bullshit and so many people fell for it, from trucker convoy anti-government ragers to Conservative politicians to animal rights activists.
These people have farmed ostriches for meat for more than 25 years only recently scrubbing their social media of images of Karen with cutting boards full of meat in the kitchen, feeding bloody chunks to dogs, and creating slick promotions for investors to get in on their 2025 plans for the future regarding the ostrich meat industry in Canada and abroad.
With at least three online fundraisers raising hundreds of thousands of dollars and not one but two crypto meme coins, if it’s not clear this was a swindle from the start, it’s clear this is now Grift 2.0, which we’ll come back to.
“I think there’s general sympathy for the birds but not for the farm itself due to their inability to be forthright and honest from the get-go,” born-and-raised Edgewood resident Randy Donselaar said in an interview with Global TV.
I’ve personally communicated with both an animal rights activist who wants the animals saved so they can live out their lives, and to an anti-government convoy kind of guy opposed to CFIA’s cull. Both, however, pulled back the curtain just ever so slightly as very few have to become shocked by the financial scams, blatant lies, and shameless grift.
Milking government haters and animal lovers
With the business plan shifted from courting investors for ostrich meat-processing on the property to a fundraiser to stop the ostrich "murders," Universal Ostrich Farm owners had at least three GoFundMe-style fundraisers online, amassing more than $280,000, as well as at least two crypto-currency meme coins that had amassed more than $26,000.
There's $LULU and then now $BARN, both deposit into the same wallet, several people pointing out on Twitter that it's all a scam and always has been.
“Decades long scam artists creating 3+ go fund me’s, 2 crypto coins that siphon into the same wallet,” Kenny P. posted on Twitter, succinctly explaining the whole story. “Took millions away from investors, and burnt all of the many they have taken over the years. Ran this as a meat farm since the beginning FYI. They tried to wipe the info online.”
Decades long scam artists creating 3+ go fund me’s, 2 crypto coins that siphon into the same wallet. Took millions away from investors, and burnt all of the many they have taken over the years. Ran this as a meat farm since the beginning FYI. They Tried to wipe the info online.
— Kenny P (@goatKennyPowers) September 28, 2025
None of this takes into account e-transfers, cheques mailed, or cash handed to them.
In some ways it’s a clever money-making scheme for two reasons.
One, they are capitalizing on the raging anti-government, anti-science, fringe, convoy crowd to fundraise to “stop government over-reach,” which is a group easily susceptible to join anyone’s “fight against tyranny.”
Two, they are capitalizing on the animal rights crowd to “donate to save from CFIA murder!” and “save the herd.”
The Supreme Court of Canada issued a stay of proceedings on Sept. 24, 2025, that paused the CFIA's Dec. 31, 2024 “notice to dispose,” while the court mulled the farm's application for leave to appeal a lower court decision allowing the cull to proceed. On that decision, and on the latter point above regarding animal rights, a lawyer and executive director of Animal Justice said the decision was an “11th-hour lifeline.”
On Nov. 6, 2025, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the application for leave to appeal. That evening the CFIA carried out the cull of the remaining ostriches using professional marksmen to humanely destroy the flock.
None of the three owners of the farm replied to my questions about where the money was going that they are raising online.
End of story? Maybe, but I’ll be shocked if this topic doesn’t emerge again in 2026.
Notes on Top 10 stories of 2025
The ostrich story wasn’t just the number one story by pageviews on Something Worth Reading in 2025, the URL for the story about the $20-million financial scam (Ostrich farm owners connected to ‘particularly abusive’ investment scheme that bilked $20 million from widows & seniors) had twice as many pageviews as the number two URL, which was actually my followup story, B.C. ostrich meat farm owners hit with avian flu now claim to be animal lovers & scientists, raising $280K from online fundraisers & cryptocurrency.
The list of top 10 stories for 2025 isn't simply the top 10 URLs by pageviews. As in, the ostrich story and the fentanyl lab (among others) were topics that I wrote multiple stories on. So, for example, while number eight on the list was about music teacher Bevin van Liempt’s criminal harassment convictions, the story was one of more than two dozen stories on the case, but it was a link to the one people read most.
So while the ostrich story URLs actually were number one and two, I group them together as one story at number one. And that meant the fentanyl lab story was number two on the list of most read stories, but by URL the link was number three after the two ostrich stories. That was the followup story about Justin Fauth's bail hearing, while the first story URL about the lab itself was actually number five by pageviews.
Other than ostriches and fentanyl, none of the other eight top 10 stories had followups (or predecessors) that ranked quite up there. So strictly speaking, the top 12 stories by URL alone were:
- Ostrich story #1
- Ostrich story #2
- Fauth-fentanyl story #2
- Muir sex offender
- Fauth-fentanyl story #1
- Super-prolific offender
- Butcher-knife murder
- First Nations chief sentenced
- Ryan Reynolds’ niece
- Music teacher criminally harasses students
- Meth dealer’s police pursuits
- Serial killer on parole
-30-
Want to support independent journalism?
Consider becoming a paid subscriber or make a one-time donation so I can continue this work.
Paul J. Henderson
pauljhenderson@gmail.com
facebook.com/PaulJHendersonJournalist
instagram.com/wordsarehard_pjh
x.com/PeeJayAitch
wordsarehard-pjh.bsky.social