Goats Lead Lambs to the Slaughter

Meet "Nanny", a bearded and highly respected employee of the Gisborne abattoirs, in Awapuni Road.

With her single horn and her fixed, "dead-pan" expression, she looks harmless enough. Bat every day "Nanny" leads 500 lambs to their death.

Aided by her pupils — two younger goats — "Nanny" marches up a ramp to the killing floor. Unaware of the fate that awaits them, the lambs follow.

The deadly game of follow-the-leader is repeated over and over as the work of supplying Gisborne with meat goes on.

×

 

• 

Sheep seems resigned to its fate as "death march" nears end.

×

 

• 

....same lamb, within six minutes

Four solo butchers, working in steady rhythm, kill and dress lambs in one operation.

Within five or six minutes of reaching the killing floor, a lamb is ready for the Sunday dinner-table.

Without the trained goats, leading lambs up the ramp would be a tedious, time-wasting job.

"Nanny", a veteran at her macabre profession, teaches younger goats the routine.

×

 

• 

Goats are hemmed in by doomed lambs. Patiently, they wait to be freed to return down ramp. For sheep it is strictly a one-way journey

×

 

• 

Sharp knife and skilful hands make death swift, painless.

×

 

• 

Sombre as a hangman, "Nanny" rests before making another journey up the ramp