Hmmm…. I’m actually considering a relationship with a vegan who somehow found her way out onto the Northern Plains.

I do have one question about the “fear and pain” thing.  While we don’t really have any direct correlation to what plants may or may not “feel,” it’s interesting to note that when some plants come under attack from pests and other agents, they communicate that to other plants via chemicals and sometimes to parts of their own system via chemicals.  Fear and pain, as animals experience, are simply cascades of chemicals and/or ions released in response to either direct external stimuli or perceived external stimuli.  Humans, as animals, can dissect or vivisect, another animal and trace nerves and other structures similar to what we have in our own bodies.  Again, as animals, we know how animals (at least complex ones), respond to pain/fear.  Is it not hubris to think that we “know” what plants experience?

Also, with regard to fear/pain and animals some of that is autonomic nerve function that has nothing to do with fear or pain.  For example, I hunt ground rodents for farmers and ranchers that I know in the area.  Let’s say that I head-shot a ground squirrel at ~100 yards with a .17HMR.  The effect on the ground squirrel is about the same as if a person had been shot with a  .308Win or 30-06Sprg at that range.   You will see movement from the ground squirrel’s body, but the squirrel is unconscious and, for all intents and purposes, quite dead.

I have two friends who hunt deer.  One uses a .375H&H Magnum rifle and the other uses a .300Wthby Magnum.  They are both good enough shots with a powerful enough rifle that the deer is Dead Right There (DRT) due to internal damage and hydrostatic pressure.  I cannot imagine the deer feeling too much pain and fear from that.