Many animals are perfectly capable of understanding the suffering of other animals. It's illustrated by menu recorded instance of one animal helping other animals in need. Even of a different species. There's probably nothing unique about humans except slightly nimbler neurons.

As for the stories humans invented to explain their grace and their horribleness I can't say much. Only that we are very creative in that regard.

Not to mention the terrible conditions that animals are forced to live in and injuries caused by processing (from birth to death) [1] as well as abuse by low-paid workers who are, themselves, working in poor conditions. [2] Factory farming is not clean and free of animal suffering by any means, but most people's experience with animals as food comes in neat, little, clean plastic-wrapped chunks of meat.

1. https://www.ciwf.org.uk/factory-farming/animal-cruelty/ 2. https://ffacoalition.org/articles/dangerous-conditions-facto...

Sheep are stunned and are pretty much out instantly.

IDK if you've ever slaughtered a sheep the non-slaughterhouse way done where most of the people live (i.e. the third world). I've done it out in rural asia. You take a long blade and pierce the heart / surrounding blood vessels straight through the chest. It takes a second or two for it to pass out. The slaughterhouse is a slight upgrade with basically no suffering at the time of death as they're instantly knocked out by electrical impulse.

If I were the sheep I would definitely pick the slaughterhouse over being shipped alive to the average end customer which is someone in the third world with a long blade.

Without cotext sure, but if you could visit places where people prepared animal for cosumption over last few thousand years. I'd say there is a trend expressing the intent of reducing suffering.

Not in total of course, but per life taken.

Temporarily putting personal feelings aside, I think you've touched on interesting philosophical questions: can something so subjective as suffering ever be fathomed, does it scale, can you do math on it...

That’s just anthropomorphizing the universe, which cannot learn or think and therefore cannot impute meaning. It is simply your opinion that something has meaning on an individual level. It may to you, but it’s purely subjective.