Partnerships in Ostrich Ranch Halted : Investments: The Department of Corporations has determined that sales of $12,500 shares in a Fullerton ranching operation constitute an illegal securities offering.

A fledgling investment venture in ostrich ranching was scratched Tuesday when its owners were served with a state order to halt the sale of limited partnerships in an Orange County ostrich ranch.

North American Ostrich Group of Fullerton and its owners, Alex Wilson and Dennis Campbell, were ordered to cease selling the $12,500 partnership shares because the state Department of Corporations determined that the deal constituted an illegal securities offering.

Campbell said he and Wilson have sold a number of partnerships since starting their company a year ago, but declined further comment. “Our attorney put the (offering) together,” he said, “and I really won’t have anything to say until I can reach him.” He declined to identify the attorney.

In an interview earlier this month, Campbell said he and Wilson had raised $60,000 from investors and had purchased six of the giant, flightless birds to start Orange County’s only ostrich ranch on a quarter-acre lot next to Campbell’s residence in the rural Sunny Hills area of Fullerton.

It was not clear Tuesday what impact, if any, the state order barring investment sales will have on the actual ranch operation.

Lindsey Kozberg, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corporations, said Wilson and Campbell failed to register the limited partnership offering with the department.

Printed offering materials, she said, promised investors returns of 200% to 300%. North American Ostrich Group was seeking to raise $250,000 and said it would use the funds to purchase breeding pairs of ostriches, at $20,000 a pair, for Campbell’s ranch. Profits to investors would come from the sale of the ostrich chicks to other ranches and, ultimately, from the sale of ostrich meat and byproducts.

Ostrich ranching has been a popular investment program for several years. One Texas ranch operator has had a display at the Orange County Fair for several years.

Backers promote the birds as a source of low-fat, low-cholesterol meat, fancy feathers and exotic leather and contend that an investment in breeding pairs of ostriches potentially can be a real moneymaker if ostrich meat ever catches the public’s fancy.

Currently, there are about 200 ostrich ranches in California, and while Campbell’s may be the only one in Orange County, it is far from the first.

Fullerton, Anaheim and La Habra all were home to large ostrich ranches in the late 1880s, when the birds’ feathers were prized as plumage for women’s hats.

Those early ranches, however, all have given way to real estate development, which has proved to be a much bigger investment vehicle in Orange County over the years.