I agree that preventing s-risks is important, but I will try to look on possible counter arguments:

1. Benevolent AI will able to fight acasual war against evil AI in the another branch of the multiverse by creating more my happy copies, or more paths from suffering observer-moment to happy observer-moment. So creating benevolent superintelligence will help against suffering everywhere in the multiverse.

2. Non-existence is the worst form of suffering if we define suffering as action against our most important value. Thus x-risks are s-risks. Pain is not always suffering, as masochists exist.

3. If we value too much attention to animal suffering, we give ground to projects like Voluntary human extinction movement. So we increase chances of human extinction, as humans created animal farms. Moreover, if we agree that non-existence is not suffering, we could kill all life on earth and stop all sufferings - which is not right.

4. Benevolent AI will able to resurrect all possible sentient beings and animals and provide them infinite paradise thus compensating any current suffering of animals.

5. Only infinite and unbearable suffering are bad. We should distinguish unbearable sufferings like agony, and ordinary sufferings which just reinforcement learning signals for wetware of our brain and inform us about the past wrong decisions or the need to call a doctor.