During twenty years of experience, I have observed that plants which have good animal welfare have a manager who trains and supervises his or her employees. Plants with lax management often have animal abuse (Grandin, 1988c; 1994a).

• Maintaining a high standard of welfare requires constant management attention and vigilance.

• A good manager constantly works on improving details of procedures. After the distractions and serious design mistakes are eliminated, employees can fully use behavioural principles to move animals easily and quietly (Grandin, 1993; Kilgour and Dalton, 1984).
  
  Understanding flight zone behaviour and utilizing a few basic principles, moving animals in a calm and orderly fashion becomes very easy.

• The author has observed that the most common mistake made by employees is attempting to move too many animals at a time.
  For all species, forcing pens should not be filled more than three-quarters full.

• Employees should also be taught how to time groups of animals. The next group should not be driven into the forcing pen until there is space in the race for them to walk into. This procedure utilizes natural following behaviour.

  

  Sheep in a crowd pen following each other into a single file race. Notice the handler's position. The animals do not need prodding.

• Most importantly, employees need to remain calm and avoid sudden, jerky movements and yelling.

• Electric prods should be used as little as possible.