Meh. I wonder how much lack of scientific consensus there is if one disregards religiously inspired or funded scientists who claim that an animal shot through the brain suffers as much as an animal which slowly bleeds to death.
Religion can never win from science on science's own turf. Not regarding evolution, or criticism of the laws of physics, or wild claims about the scientific value of the Bible or Koran, or 'first cause' God evidences. It is all a death end. Religion will always lose out. It merely serves as a means for the religious to cover their ears and eyes for what they would otherwise see is true.
Better, I think, is to argue that the religious slaughter tradition acknlowedges that one is dealing with a live being. That man and animal are kept in touch, look each other in the eye as it were. Whereas it is the scientific tradition which has invented industrial biology. Which has moved animals away from people, has given secular industrial society the means to cover its eyes and ears for the plight of sentient beings.
It is not a pretty sight, to kill an animal, to hang it upside down, skin it, cut out the intestines. It is far removed from the 'fun food' you see on your plate. A distance which has allowed the industry to commit all sorts of sins with both the well-being of the animal and the health of the human consumer.
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