EDGEWOOD, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA - Gunshots rang out at a British Columbia ostrich farm as a Canadian Food Inspection Agency operation to cull hundreds of the birds got underway.

The shots were coming from inside an enclosure built with large hay bales, where staff with the agency had herded scores of the ostriches.

Police have limited access to the property, while bright floodlights and the bales obscured what was happening inside the enclosure after dark had fallen.

But the CFIA says it was moving forward with "complete depopulation and disposal" of the flock, fulfilling an order it issued more than 10 months ago in an avian flu outbreak that went on to kill 70 of the birds.

The owners of the farm near Edgewood in southeastern B.C. fought the order, but on Thursday the Supreme Cour

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