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Hypothetical question regarding wild plants and trespassing

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katya_dog1

katya_dog1

Let's say there is a large tract of land near you that has a couple of common species of sundew on it. The land has been sold, and is going to be cleared at some point in the future. Would you trespass onto the site and steal the plants to "save" them, rather than contacting the owner and asking if you could take them?

Now take the above situation except change the plants to a rarer species, such as Cephalotus. What would you do in this case?
 
I would deff consult the previous and current land owner b4 going on to their property for any reason that would result in digging up their land and ask them if they'd mind letting me remove/save the plants living their b4 they cleared it. If it was something rare and they said no i think i would contact a wildlife preserve or something like that to see if they could get permission from the city/state/owner(s) to safely remove the plants from being cleared with other stuff the owner doesn't want. I don't kno if anything could/would be done to save the plants and as much as it would kill me to watch thriving parts of nature parish to make room for something prob unneeded and already to many of around... But in the end something either work out or don't but its worth putting in the effort to try and do something about the situation.

Many land owners have not had any issue in the past letting them remove plants they don't want on their land... But thats just with the people I've known who have had to do such a thing be4. At the end of the day you really don't kno how outta gonna go unless you ask and try i guess :)
 
Ohhh, I'm not in this situation myself. :-D

I saw a thread on another forum with this as a real-life situation, and I was astonished at the number of people who encouraged the OP to go and steal the plants (a couple of common sundew species), without consulting the landowner or anything. An example: (username of person removed)

****** wrote:
If it's going to get cleared, I'll just dig up all the plants and replace it with some peat.

Better to do it at night so you won't get caught.
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katya_dog1 wrote:

Why, why, why would anyone even think about doing it without permission? Better yet, are you seriously advising someone to do so? That is a terrible idea. Just ask. You know what taking plants off of somebody else's property without asking is, even if they don't care?

Stealing. Not to mention trespassing.

Chances are, if the land is going to be cleared anyway, they'll likely be fine with it. But, regardless, remember the Golden Rule.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
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katya_dog1 said:
Ohhh, I'm not in this situation myself. :-D

I saw a thread on another forum with this as a real-life situation, and I was astonished at the number of people who encouraged the OP to go and steal the plants (a couple of common sundew species), without consulting the landowner or anything. An example: (username of person removed)
Click to expand...

Some people think the "rights" of plants supercede the property rights of people. Or they maybe just want free plants and don't have the right friends.??? I ran across an even more egregious example in the same vein on an orchid forum I frequent. A user noticed a small garden planted on the campus of the college she attends which contained CP's. This person assumed that whoever planted the garden didn't know what they were doing and felt justified in not only liberating ( her words ) a VFT, but had the gall to brag about it while asking for information on how to care for it!
 
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SubRosa said:
Some people think the "rights" of plants supercede the property rights of people.
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I think that is the fundamental problem.

I completely agree with you. I'm astounded that there are people who think that plants (non-sentient) have a "right" to live, and that said right allows them to break the law. I bet those people don't complain every time they see a neighbor pull a weed out of a garden bed.

Ah well. I'm glad that there are people on this forum, at least, who see stealing plants as wrong.
 
" Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive, or experience subjectively. Eighteenth-century philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think (reason) from the ability to feel (sentience)."
Plants are 100% sentient, they don't however have conscious thought. They do feel pain and electrincal impulses equivalent to emotion and if you say that isn't emotion or feeling then your basically saying love isn't real either and we can argue about that till the cows come home. Fact is plants react, the feel and they response. All that nerves are in the human body are electrical impulses. I don't see the difference. How ever a human will put you in jail or shoot you for stepping on their property, best to ask permission before stepping on anyone's lawn. Never the less I could reason with the want to save any life no matter if it's conscious or not.
 
I think in this case, the poster is in the wrong. If these were species on the verge of being wiped out, it would be a different story. If It were a species verging on extinction, I would still ask, and if denied, id bring out the night vision goggles and field collecting supplies!
 
Only if It was drosera regia or something would I go to that extent. If it's not endangered and OP said they were common you should be asking permission, if they say no, oh well.
 
eithan0693 said:
" Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive, or experience subjectively. Eighteenth-century philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think (reason) from the ability to feel (sentience)."
Plants are 100% sentient, they don't however have conscious thought. They do feel pain and electrincal impulses equivalent to emotion and if you say that isn't emotion or feeling then your basically saying love isn't real either and we can argue about that till the cows come home. Fact is plants react, the feel and they response. All that nerves are in the human body are electrical impulses. I don't see the difference. How ever a human will put you in jail or shoot you for stepping on their property, best to ask permission before stepping on anyone's lawn. Never the less I could reason with the want to save any life no matter if it's conscious or not.
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Plants feel pain and experience emotions? How do you know that, have they told you? Plants react to stimuli, certainly. But pain and emotion require conciousness of self which you admit plants don't possess.
 
Emotion and pain are just electrical impulses perceived by your brain. This "awareness of self" you speak of can't even be proved due to that not every human responds to emotional stimulus the same so there for plants due to their ability to react the same to the same stimulus actually have a more advanced understanding of perception then some human beings.
 
Plants don't have brains, they can not interpret these electrical impulses the way a human brain can. That is what sets us apart.
 
The ability to interpret these impulses IS what makes the difference, the impulses are still there. You can't tell me that plants don't feel, ever heard of the sensitive plant? They DO feel. Feeling and the ability to understand what that feeling is, are two completely different things thank you. They have nerves not brains, which still allows for them to be sentient, have feeling, respond, but they just don't understand it. It's subconscious , oh wait our heart beats without us thinking too, I'm not a crazy person stating plants talk and can cry, I'm simply stating from a completely scientific point of veiw they are how ever sentient and living. Living things deserve some respect, more so then the dirt they grow in :) that's all lol
 
This thread turned philosophical pretty quick...

There are a few documentaries/shorts that address these questions of plants responding to pain. We know that plants can communicate with each other whether it be through mycelium, joined root systems, or the release of hormones. This has been proven.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGLABm7jJ-Y

A quick google search should find more.
 
AnIsleAteHer said:
I think in this case, the poster is in the wrong. If these were species on the verge of being wiped out, it would be a different story. If It were a species verging on extinction, I would still ask, and if denied, id bring out the night vision goggles and field collecting supplies!
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Translation: you respect the property rights of others as long as you agree with how those others exercise said rights.
 
eithan0693 said:
" Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive, or experience subjectively. Eighteenth-century philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think (reason) from the ability to feel (sentience)."
Plants are 100% sentient, they don't however have conscious thought. They do feel pain and electrincal impulses equivalent to emotion and if you say that isn't emotion or feeling then your basically saying love isn't real either and we can argue about that till the cows come home. Fact is plants react, the feel and they response. All that nerves are in the human body are electrical impulses. I don't see the difference. How ever a human will put you in jail or shoot you for stepping on their property, best to ask permission before stepping on anyone's lawn. Never the less I could reason with the want to save any life no matter if it's conscious or not.
Click to expand...

Many people, myself included can reason with the want, saying that is a cop out. It's whether or not or which action is taken that is the measure of a person's morality.
 
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