musketjr wrote:'A', not 'the' consensus. there is no unqualified consensus for anything these days. if you think the notion of animals suffering is controversial, I don't know what to say to you. I don't see a connection whatsoever between (lack of) tragic awareness and the kind of intense suffering animals are put through in these industries.
it all seems, as you state yourself, to be a moot point because they do suffer and you advocate for some kind of benevolent exploitation, a contradiction in terms. in truth, you also believe in veganism, if you believe it is wrong to cause animals to suffer for frivolous reasons.
Nonhuman animals do feel pain, though I wouldn't use the word "suffering", because it involves also having a subjective experience of pain, which nonhuman animals are lacking.
We do have to eat food which is of animal origin (meat, butter, etc), so why not spare them the pain they go through in order to become our meal?
On the other hand, there was another argument I developed back when we had this discussion, when I argued that nonhuman animals can't be subjects of ethics, because they have no way of reciprocating moral behaviour. Again, it comes down to those mental abilities which they lack (theory of mind and subjectivity).
Some might argue that nonhuman animals are lucky for not having a subjective experience of the world. Just think about it: they don't have to go through years of school and then become unemployed, they don't have to put up with annoying mothers, corrupt politicians, bosses who are dicks, they don't have to learn arithmetics and trigonometry, they don't have to be wage slaves to put food on the table, they don't have to put up with feminism, they don't have to wear condoms, they don't have to talk carefully not to hurt their wives feelings. All this shit we have to put up with more than makes up for the short moment of pain they go through before getting processed for our consumption.
I think if we gave them the choice of becoming humans, most of them would prefer to go back to being just animals. I mean just imagine putting them through the ordeal of choosing between Trump and Clinton, paying rent and going to work just to be able to survive and have a box they can go back to and take a nap before they have to wake up and start all over again, etc. I think if you put them through all that, they would say "your species is insane, we'd rather put our necks on the knife and become your meal than having to live like you degenerate sad pathetic fucks".