With Profound Sadness, we share:
Over the past few days, our sanctuary family has been facing one of the most heartbreaking experiences in our history. We are navigating a situation that has required immediate action, coordination with veterinary professionals, federal (CFIA) regulatory authorities, Interior Health and Epidemiology divisions as we had positive case of H5N1 at our sanctuary.
Our team and volunteers are devastated. The animals in our care are the center of everything we do, and the emotional weight of this moment is immense.
Because this situation is still active and regulated, we are simply consumed with this horror. We want to be very clear: we are not hiding anything from our community. We are simply trying to move through this with care, accuracy, and integrity while also supporting our animals and each other.
We will share everything with our experience. The facts we are getting a crash course in, may be able to help the next sanctuaries as these situations are designed for rapid responses wrapped in navigating the differentiating factors of being put into a commercial category.
For now, we ask for:
Compassion
Patience
And understanding
Our commitment to the animals, to transparency, and to this community has not changed and will never change.
If you need to reach us, please do so with kindness. Our hearts are fragile right now.
Love,
Your Critteraid Family
FAQ
1. What happened?
On Sunday, October 25, 2025, our rooster, Delta, exhibited signs of illness and passed away. We were making arrangements to send Delta to the lab (historically, we have sent many birds when a passing has something we can’t explain). Monday upon arrival, we had 3 more birds pass, so we sent 3 birds off. Between October 26th and October 28th, we had 8 chickens die suddenly, leaving 2 extremely sick that we euthanized on the 29th after getting confirmation of H5N1.
During this time period, we sent samples for testing to determine the cause, and we were informed on October 29th that the chickens had the avian flu. (H5 from Abbotsford and second lab out of Winnipeg to determine H5N1 strain)
2. What did we do next?
We immediately shut the farm down for all but essential personnel.
We are working with Interior Health (to look after our humans).
Navigate CFIA protocol for containment and lockdown of areas.
On Nov 8th, we took the heartbreaking option to compassionately euthanize our 5 ducks ourselves and not have the disposal team conduct so we could ensure it was done our way with love and dignity. Charles was 18 years old, Martin was 9, Cossette was 12, Bernie 7, and Thelma 5 years old. We loved them dearly.
The farm remains closed to all but essential personnel.
3. What is avian influenza – bird flu?
4. What type of avian flu is present at the sanctuary?
H5N1. While H5N1 primarily affects birds and causes severe disease with high fatalities, it can also infect mammals (including cats, dogs, cows, pigs, goats, and others) and humans.
5. How serious is H5N1 for humans?
Human cases are very rare — 900 cases worldwide, 2 cases in Canada.
But if you catch it, it is very serious. Reported that about 52–53% of confirmed human H5N1 cases have resulted in death.
6. How does avian flu spread?
Wild birds, especially waterfowl, are common carriers.
The virus spreads through direct contact with infected birds, their droppings, secretions/saliva, feathers, or contaminated surfaces (like shoes, clothing, equipment, or feed).
People can also carry the virus on their clothing, shoes, and vehicle tires.
7. How do wild birds have access to the sanctuary?
The sanctuary sits directly under a migratory bird path, and wild birds regularly land on the property. We cannot prevent this. We also live in the Okanagan, which has lakes, beaches, geese, and ducks.
8. What are we doing about the risks?
We are working with Interior Health to make sure we provided a list of everyone for contact tracing. They start with the front line of volunteers who had direct contact (we held, comforted, inspected most of the birds without any PPE before we knew what we were dealing with), and Interior Health assisted each one with testing and antivirals if deemed necessary after their assessment.
The farm is shut down to all but essential personnel to make sure we can keep everyone safe.
Essential personnel at the farm are following strict protocols while they do their tasks to minimize risk.
We are working with an epidemiologist to make sure that all of our other animals at the farm and cat sanctuary are protected.
It’s important to note that no humans have tested positive, had any symptoms, or felt sick in any way to date.
9. Will we have birds again at the farm?
10. How long will the farm be closed?
Questions from the Public
How did you first realize something was wrong and how the positive H5N1 result was confirmed?
We have a lab in Abbotsford that confirmed H5, then a lab in Winnipeg confirmed the severity of the H5 strain to H5N1.
How many and what type of animals tested positive?
3 chickens.
What steps are you taking on the ground now to protect the animals and your volunteers?
Immediate closure to all volunteers and public. Interior Health was involved to be available to all volunteers that were exposed to ensure their level of comfort was achieved.
What would you like the public to know about Critteraid, your animals, and what this has been like for your team?
Trying to make all the right decisions, navigate the complexities of mandates and regulations, what is correct, what is a mistake, making the right decisions for the animals, protecting us/them, obligation to community, the unwavering support, the unjustified hate, sleepless nights, and I miss my mom moments… It’s a pressure I have never felt before, and the crash course has given us clarity on what must be done next.
Are we getting threats?
Yes.
Are we evacuating our animals from the farm?
No.
Is CFIA going after (culling/killing) all of our animals, including dogs and cats?
No.
Can the public help by adopting/taking animals from the sanctuary?
Appreciated, but we would rather do adoptions when people can make that decision out of wanting to instead of fear.
Is the CFIA bringing dead, massacred, beheaded ostriches to the farm?
Absolutely no.
Have we received ostriches from a farm in Enerby?
No.
Do we have anything to do with the petition started on change.org by Nicole Corrado?
https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-forced-culling-of-critteraid-animals
No.
Do we have anything to do with the petition started on
https://www.thepetitionsite.com/618/915/297/stop-the-cfia-slaughter-at-critteraid-sanctuary/
No.
Does this mean the sanctuary will not be able to welcome new animals for some time?
Once the CFIA completes their assessment of decontamination, we could receive more birds in 30 days. But we at Critteraid have questions and concerns to rectify before we do any such thing.
