The welfare of livestock during unloading, lairage, and movement to the stunning pen is critically important — and poor handling at this stage causes significant fear and suffering.
Lairage and stunning pen handling represents the final welfare experience in an animal's life, and inadequate handling causes the last suffering they experience. Fear responses during handling — from noise, electric goads, slipping, and rough treatment — cause acute stress that is measurable in meat quality (PSE — pale, soft, exudative meat) as well as in animal welfare. Low-stress handling is both a welfare investment and an economic benefit. Training handlers in Temple Grandin-style flight-zone management, low-stress cattle handling, and electric goad minimisation produces measurable improvements in both animal welfare and product quality.