Second, I have previously speculated that pain needs to be unimpeachably painful, 
otherwise the animal could overrule it. Pain functions to warn the animal not to 
repeat a damaging action such as jumping over a cliff or picking up a hot ember. 
If the warning consisted merely of throwing a switch in the brain, raising a painless 
red flag, the animal could overrule it in pursuit of a competing pleasure: ignoring 
lethal bee stings in pursuit of honey, say. According to this theory, pain needs to be 
consciously felt in order to be sufficiently painful to resist overruling. The principle 
could be extended beyond pain.  

Animals, including humans, override pain signals all the time, for all kinds of reasons. Cats are famous for hiding physical distress, which I think they do so they don't look like easy prey. I'm sure most prey animals can override pain signals if it means avoiding the attention of predators. If anything I would think that being able to override pain signals would be a criterion for consciousness.