> the most important question is whether they can feel pain or distress.

Most important question for a small group of people in a philosophical and quasi-religious movement that unilaterally redefined the term to fit their agenda.

Millions of scientists don't feel that pain is so special as to receive special treatment. Is just one of our type of sensors. Not more important than to be able to see, to taste or to hear. Definitely not more important than be able to reproduce. And there is a lot of pain involved in how mammals enter in the world.

The idea that to chop a tree is more moral than to kill a mosquito is totally random and alienated from biological reality.