Judas goats

To my surprise I couldn’t find an online dictionary that offered a definition of the phrase “Judas goat”. Well I’ll fix that right now:

Judas goat: The stockyards use such a goat to lead the sheep to slaughter. Without the aid of a Judas goat, the sheep would mill around endlessly in the open and would not enter or traverse the chute to the slaughter house.

The Judas goat, mingling with the sheep, is trained to lead them out of the pen and down the chute to the slaughterhouse. And at the last second, the Judas goat is allowed to escape by a side-gate while the sheep go to their appointed end.

Hat tip to Sandhill Trek for a useful definition.