A Judas goat is a trained goat used at a slaughterhouse and in general animal herding. The Judas goat is trained to associate with sheep or cattle, leading them to a specific destination. In stockyards, a Judas goat will lead sheep to slaughter, while its own life is spared. Judas goats are also used to lead other animals to specific pens and onto trucks. They have fallen out of use in recent times, and in fact are now illegal in the European Union[1] but can still be found in various smaller slaughterhouses in the rest of the world.
The term is a reference to the biblical character Judas Iscariot.[2]
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The phrase was also used in World War II by the 8th Air Force, U.S. Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator crew members. Each bomb group employed a war-weary bomber known as a formation, lead, or assembly ship. These aircraft were brightly painted and decorated with individual psychedelic colors in stripes, checkers, or polka dots, enabling easy recognition by their flock of bombers to form up from various airbases over England and fly strategic bombing missions over Europe.[3]
The phrase has also been used to describe a goat that is used to find feral goats that are targeted for eradication. The Judas goat is outfitted with a transmitter, painted in red and then released. The goat then finds the remaining herds of feral goats, allowing hunters to exterminate them.[4]