The longtime owners of the Eagle Acres Dairy in Langley welcome people interested in learning how the milk is produced. But disturbing surveillance footage showed some very unwelcome visitors in the middle of the night on Thursday.
“Two people trespassed onto our property and brutally killed the five-day-old calf,” owners Erin and Brian Anderson said in a Facebook post.
Erin Anderson she said was surprised to see a newborn calf missing from its pen, as well as a considerable “trail of blood” leading out of the barn, which turned into shock and devastation after she reviewed the farm’s surveillance video.
A man is seen shooting at the calf from outside the barn with a crossbow four times, Anderson said, while a woman stood and watched. He then grabbed an arrow from the dying calf and stabbed it nearly 15 times.
“One person does the act and one person watches,” she said. “It was very graphic and serial killer-ish.”
The pair loaded the animal into what the RCMP have said they believe to be a high-end SUV, possibly a Mercedes or BMW, and drove off.
“The calf was still moving as it was being dragged out of the barn and into the vehicle,” Anderson said.
The owners are asking people to share still frames taken from the surveillance video on social in hopes of catching who did it and caution other dairy farmers in the area.
RCMP Cpl. Holly Largy said the police are investigating and that arrows from a crossbow were left behind at the farm.
Largy agreed that the calf may not have been dead when it was loaded into the vehicle, so if any charges are laid, they would likely include causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.
The farm does not have a front gate, Anderson said, so they can receive around-the-clock deliveries of seed, milk, and other necessities –something the suspects would have taken advantage of when they drove right up to the calving pen.
“We are still mortified.”
