Abstract: A livestock sorter includes a weighing scale within a confining cage for obtaining a weight of the animal to be sorted depending on its reaching a predetermined market weight. Front and rear gates are each formed by two gate panels which are pivotal about a vertical axis at an outer edge of the gate panel. The gate panels are opened and closed by symmetrical levers and links connected from the gate panel to an actuating member slidable in a slide track along the midline of the container in response to an actuating force from a drive member. The actuating member, the links and the levers are arranged overcenter against an end stop of the guide track such that, with the gate panels in the closed position, force from the animal on the gate panels tending to open the gate panels provides no force through the links and the actuating member to the drive member.