shaw"A massive song and dance is being made in this thread over whether the last few seconds of animals' lives matter more than the previous rest of their lives, which in all probability were spent in miserable, unnatural conditions, which we're not even talking about much. But, of course, if it's what Muslims do..."

No shaw the thread was about halal meat. I believe you went out and bought yourself a soapbox to stand up on and pontificate about totally separate issue of annimal welfare, transportation, and conditions in abbatoirs. All this on a thread that by your own admission is pointless. These issues you raise are valid, besides being cruel they impact the bottom line. Raise annimals in poor conditions and you are shovelling food with restricted weightgain. Cruelty during transportation and slaughter can create carcass bruising and impacts on the value of the annimal. Better policing of animal welfare is required with more cctv. I would also like to see far more inspection of the comprehensive controls on medication and elapsed time prior to slaughter. I suspect this can be open to abuse.
However the main stumbling block for both you and the gnome is the efficacy of prestunning. You are both obdurate and obtuse. SO I will illustrate the argument with a simple analogy that both of you should be capable of understanding.
If you go to the dentist for a root canal(SLAUGHTER) would you like it performed without anaesthetic(PRESTUNNING)
There. Made it easy for you.