How anti-vaccine sentiment helped raise funds and saved the lives of some B.C. ostriches

Supporters stand outside Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, B.C., on Sept. 22, 2025.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Hemens

Published: October 15, 2025 2:08pm EDT

Authors

1. 

   Jeremy Snyder

   Professor, Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University

2. 

   Claire Wilson

   Masters Student, Public Health, Simon Fraser University

Disclosure statement

Jeremy Snyder receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Claire Wilson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Partners

Simon Fraser University provides funding as a member of The Conversation CA.

Simon Fraser University provides funding as a member of The Conversation CA-FR.

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.64628/AAM.9fuynrg9g

More than 300 ostriches have been threatened with destruction in eastern British Columbia after avian flu was detected in the flock. The birds’ owners have argued this is a case of “unjust governmental overreach.”

The owners’ plight received support from members of Donald Trump’s administration in the United States and raised more than C$290,000 for their legal and operating costs through a series of crowdfunding campaigns.

This level of financial support for a small ostrich farm shouldn’t be completely surprising. It demonstrates how crowdfunding rewards and encourages political polarization.

Government overreach

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s decision to cull birds at Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, B.C., has echoes of debates over government policy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This includes decrying what is seen as government overreach into personal freedoms and medical decision-making, with comparisons drawn to 2022’s crowdfunded anti-vaccine Freedom Convoy.

The farm’s interest in researching natural immunity has attracted vaccine skeptics more generally and support from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and others in the U.S.. This is reflected in some donors’ comments, where supporters have posted messages including “down with communism,” “the tyrannical leftist Canadian Government is to blame,” and “globalists don’t want natural cures. They only want to profit from their poison jabs!”

CP24 reports on the attention paid by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Oz to a potential ostrich cull.

Political appeals

Crowdfunding campaigns of all stripes benefit from public attention and the ability to appeal to potential donors. But while appealing to the general public is a well-tested way to win the popularity contest that is built into crowdfunding, so too is connecting to a subset of partisan supporters who see donating to campaigns as way of expressing their political values.

This has been evident in many viral crowdfunding campaigns, including the hugely successful Freedom Convoy campaign in Canada that raised more than $10 million.

In the U.S., some Jan. 6 defendants used crowdfunding to great success, raising more than US$5 million to pay for their legal bills through these campaigns.

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