A five-day-old calf was shot with arrows and taken by two people last week, prompting a RCMP investigation, the owners of a Langley dairy farm said Thursday.
Eagle Acres Dairy shared surveillance photos and video of the alleged incident, showing a man attack the calf in its pen before dragging it out to a waiting SUV along with a woman.
The calf was then loaded into the vehicle and the couple drove off, the farm said — all before the owners showed up to the barn later that morning.
Owner Brian Anderson told Global News they didn’t know what happened until they checked their surveillance tapes.
“It was disturbing, it’s awful,” he said. “Just more the act of how it was done and what was shown on surveillance.”
Anderson said the vehicle could be seen pulling into the farm’s driveway at 4:45 a.m. on Aug. 1.
The video shows the man shooting several arrows into the calf from different vantage points, causing the animal to stumble and fall over.
Broken arrows were found at the scene, Anderson said. There was one in the pen, and another in the parking lot. A pool of blood was found in the pen as well.
WATCH: (Aug. 8, 2016) 12-day old foal stolen from Langley farm
Anderson said the two suspects appeared to be well-dressed and were “clearly not experienced.”
“The calf suffered for a little bit extra, just because of the poor marksmanship of this person,” he said. “The disturbing part was the invasion of our privacy, certainly, but more the calf was in 10 minutes of agony with multiple arrows hanging out of it.”
Anderson admitted that the images caught on the farm’s surveillance cameras are of poor quality, but he hopes someone can still recognize the pair or their vehicle and inform police.
Langley RCMP have confirmed they are looking for the pair of suspects, and efforts are underway to enhance the photos and video.
Spokesperson Cpl. Holly Largy added there are very few other clues for police to go by, and no descriptions of the suspects have been released.
Anderson said the farm and the family are saddened that they could not prevent what happened. They said they keep the barn doors open to create air flow for the animals.
“We failed that calf that day,” he said. “We may have opened our door to someone who scoped it out and came back. It’s a disturbing fact. But we can’t discontinue what we do for the one act that’s happened here.”
— With files from the Canadian Press