And about time too.
Not stunning the animal before cutting its throat is clearly going to cause the animal pain and suffering. The proof is self evident – unconscious animals and humans do not feel pain. That is why we anaesthetise people before performing surgery upon them – to render them unconscious so that the invasive procedure causes them no pain.
Some scientific studies have been done on this matter...
http://www.grandin.co...ning.causes.pain.html
http://www.newscienti...igious-slaughter.html
Those people who argue against a ban do so because they think that their religion is being attacked as they cannot slaughter animals in the manner prescribed in their holy books. So what? There are a great many things that were permissible and even desirable when these ancient books were written. However, some of these practices are now illegal in civilised countries such as polygamy, state-sanctioned murder, child marriage, torture and genocide.
It's called progress.