INTERIOR - LIVESTOCK TRAILER - AUCTION DOCK - DAY: The old, rusty trailer backed in to the loading dock. Inside, a little black lamb shivered against the wall where ewes and nanny goats pressed him and the rest of the babies behind them protectively. They waited, eyes trained on the door. Cold, empty men's voices blended with the beseeching howls of bull calfs from inside the building. The dense odors of fear and despair hung in the air as the trailer door screeched open. Men and boys with sticks tried to force the ewes and nannies away from the babies, but a big, brave billy goat reared up and slammed into the knees of the nearest man. The man stumbled and cursed as he cracked a stick on the billy goat's head. "Look out boys, this un here's meeean, best take 'em directly." Following orders, a boy picked the goat up and dragged him inside the auction house, where his ear was tagged, "For Slaughter Only."

EXTERIOR - AUCTION DOCK - DAY:  The ewes and nannies were forced off next. The little lamb bleated softly as his mother turned back with one last look of love. Suddenly, bright light flooded the trailer. The little black lamb looked out and saw some sympathetic humans, quieter and different from the others, on a catwalk above. They were looking right at him with the same kind of love he had seen in his mother's eyes. He stopped shaking and let the auction men move and tag him, hardly noticing them. The light was shining so brightly that all darkness disappeared.

INTERIOR - AUCTION ARENA - DAY:  Finally, the little black lamb found himself pushed into the center of a dingy, cramped ring. A crowded house of blank-eyed humans waited in the gray recesses, bid cards in hand. The lamb looked up and saw the different humans with love in their eyes smiling down at him. A beam of light shone down on the auction ring, and he was filled with a sense of love and peace. The auction handlers were yelling and kicking and seemed intent on something, but it didn't matter what they were doing. He kept his eyes on the light.

 INTERIOR. - LIBERTY CHARIOT (CAR) - DUSK:  The next thing he knew, strong, loving arms lifted him gently and placed him in the back of a car, along with the brave billy goat and two more babies. The little black lamb crawled into the woman's lap and stared into her eyes, where he basked in mother love.






Photo credit: Indra