Brian Anderson walked into his dairy farm last week expecting to see Scorcher, a five-day-old calf he left sleeping in its enclosure the night before.

The calf was gone. In its place were puddles of blood and a broken arrow.

The arrow was apparently used in an attack against the calf that was caught on surveillance footage at Eagles Acres Dairy, a small, family-run farm in Langley, B.C.

RCMP are now investigating.

The footage, which Anderson reviewed shortly after the discovery, shows a man and a woman entering the barn at about 4:45 a.m. PT on Aug. 1.

For eight minutes, Anderson said, the man shot the calf with up to six arrows using a crossbow. When the animal remained alive and standing, the man stabbed it repeatedly with an arrow.

Watch the man approach the enclosure and roll under the gate:

RCMP say they're investigating footage from a Metro Vancouver dairy farm that shows a couple attacking and killing a calf. The attack is not shown here in this edited version. 0:38

The man dragged the body out of the farm and placed it in the trunk of a black luxury SUV before driving off with the woman.

"Looking at the video was a gut-wrenching experience," Anderson said.

"It was disturbing to us even being farmers who understand what death is."

The calf was five days old when it was attacked. (Submitted by Brian Anderson)

Motive not known

The case garnered attention after Anderson posted stills from the surveillance footage on the farm's Facebook page.

RCMP Cpl. Holly Largy said investigators reviewed the surveillance video and hope the public can help identify the two trespassers.

The motive for the attack is unclear, she said.

"Potentially they took it for a veal for a restaurant or there could be more sinister type of things that I couldn't begin to conceive. But I honestly don't know why they did it."

Anderson said the male and female trespassers appeared to be Asian and in their mid-to-late 20s or early 30s.

A camera captured the couple driving away, but the licence plate is not visible.

The footage shows the man and woman placing the carcass in the trunk of a luxury SUV and driving off. (Eagle Acres Dairy/Facebook)

The farm, which opened in 1999, offers tours to schools and drop-in visits in a wide, open space.

Anderson installed the cameras to monitor cows giving birth, he said, but the farm remains largely unsecured at night.

"To surround ourselves with a gate and a fence is just not practical," he said.

With files from Meera Bains and Estefania Duran