People often consider animals to be alive, thinking that they have minds. Animals can think, reason, make decisions, make love, live, and be dead. Animals have minds just like humans do but unlike people, they cannot vocalize, use speech, or write. Although animals may appear to have minds, these are extremely complex concepts that must be taken on board when considering the relationship between an animal and its owner.
Animals are multicellular, organismic, eukaryotic living things in the Kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, all animals breathe oxygen, consume food, can multiply, reproduce by sexual means, move, and can communicate with other animals. In this order, the animal kingdom includes such diverse creatures as sharks, reptiles, amphibians, mollusks, insects, birds, and mammals (people). The classification of animalia continues with fishes, birds, mammals, unicellular algae, and the vertebrates, which are amphibian and reptilian organisms.
Like most professional careers involving dealing with living things, animal sciences has seen an explosion in research over the last century. Much of this research has been directed toward understanding animal behavior, physiology, development, intelligence, psychology, cognition, culture, ecology, and education. The relationship between an animal and its keeper is fundamental to the understanding of animal sciences. As such, there are many subdisciplines within animal sciences training. One such discipline isomorphology, the study of animal bodies.
Anatomy and physiology is the study of the arrangement and function of cells, tissues, organs, and muscles in living things. Cell theory is a branch of biology that postulates that each living thing is composed of living cells. Behaviour is also part of animal sciences and encompasses aspects of animal behavior such as locomotion, vocalization, play, hunting, territoriality, sex, socialization, food intake, and interaction. Social science involves the study of how animals interact with each other and with humans.
One of the emerging branches of animal sciences is biomedical technology, which seeks to use animal science to apply science to human diseases and to help in curing human diseases. For example, some biomedical technologies in use include genetic engineering, pharmacogenetics, pharmacology, and gene therapy. Veterinary medicine is a division of animal sciences that focuses on the study, management, and treatment of animals. There are several subdisciplines in veterinary medicine including diagnostics, surgical procedures, diagnostics monitoring, diagnostics testing, vaccines, wound care, nephrology, and much more. Veterinary professionals also utilize animal genetics and micro-flora to better understand disease mechanisms and to treat illnesses and injuries successfully.
Livestock marketing concentrates on the production of beef, pork, goat, fish, dairy and sheep. Animal breeding involves animal rearing, stock selection, managing fertility and pregnancy, and handling of sows, bull, and poultry. In order to raise livestock, you need to employ animal scientists who can identify animal behaviors, determine which traits are valuable, and build a farm and ranch accordingly. You can also buy farm stocks from an animal breeder. Other factors such as nutrition, manure management, and shelter can also be taken care of by qualified animal technicians who are also members of the livestock marketing team.