an animal management system provides an alley to control the handling of animals when procedures are to be performed on the animals by veterinarians or cattle producers . the alley is formed by a base frame , and included therewith are a headgate and preferably two wedge - shaped access doors rotatably mounted with the base frame . the headgate is movable between an entrapping position to a releasing position for an animal , and coordinated movement of the at least one access door ensures that a lead animal is properly positioned while other down line animals do not interfere with care given to , or procedures performed on , the lead animal in the headgate . each access door allows convenient access for persons to the lead animal , and the selective use of one of two doors at a time facilitates the access to and movement of animals of different sizes in the alley . the system may also include an articulating hitch assembly for coupling the alley with a towing vehicle and decoupling the alley so that the hitch assembly substantially does not block the exit of the alley .