The Utilitarian Argument for Animal Suffering

Your arguments about suffering and that strikes me as very similar to Jeremy Bentham's views about animals. Your argument doesn't derive from any moral theory it's compatible with most moral theories. We can accept that animal suffering is a bad thing but how do you measure it against human suffering? The main thing that's bad about suffering is just its intrinsic nature. But physical suffering may be very similar in the case of higher animals and human beings.