Do trees feel pain when you cut them down?
by 
Jenny's Gone On Vacation
ANSWERS: 6
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I’m sure they do feel pain when bad people cut them down. That’s called deforestation which is a cruel act. After all, trees are living things and all living things have feelings.
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Yes, but it is in a way that we, as higher-order mammals, might not understand.
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I used to wonder about that too. I was a timber feller for years and I cut down lots of trees for lumber. Sometimes, on a really hot day, a sugar pine or a white fir would gush water from the undercut, almost like it was bleeding. We have to wonder too if the grass feels pain when we mow it, or the wheat when we harvest it or the potatoes when we uproot them etc etc. 12/16/23
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No. Living thing in science doesn't imply it has feelings -- only that it grows. Bacteria is living but has no feelings or brain. 7/19/2011
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Grass senses distress when cut which is why it gives of that scent, so not pain, but chemical distress as a reaction to not being destroyed. I'm sure trees aren't exempt.
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bostjan the adequate 🥉 I agree, but one thing that might be interesting as an aspect to the conversation: how do you define "pain?" I think we generally take this to be universally understood among humans. However, medical dictionaries define it as a neurological signal indicating tissue damage or potential tissue damage. Sounds great to medical doctors, but when biologists tried to generalize this definition to include other organisms, this led to a conundrum with animals such as sponges, which have no nervous system, but still respond exactly the same way to external stimuli as simple animals with nervous systems. So, the question becomes: does a sponge that contracts its body immediately away from a sharp or hot object feel something other than what a jellyfish does when confronted with the same object? Now, how about a tree which is known to release chemicals that signal injury, but has no tissues that allow it to move?
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Have you ever knowest a tree with branches over a street will only grow branches so far down so they clear the vehicles passing under them. often they have a squared off corner on the curb side of the branches. Most people think high profile vehicles break the branches off that grow downward. This is not true, the tree learns to protect itself by no longer growing down into the traffic. Plants feel damage and modify their growth. Plants also listen to what people say to them. If you talk hurtful words towards a plant it will slow growth and if it goes on long the plant may die. Plants have feelings because they are alive.
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