Animals As Human Food

In order for an animal to be alive, it must have lungs, an eye, a brain, a digestive tract, a spinal cord, and an immune system. The lungs make the animal breathe by taking in air and expelling carbon dioxide. An animal’s eye is on the outside of its body and is used for seeing. The brain is located inside the animal and is used for instinct, memory, and learning. The heart pumps blood throughout the animal’s body and creates hormones for the various organs. An animal can live for up to a year without eating or drinking, unless it is being starved.

An animal has the ability to move in several ways. Animals can walk, move through the ocean by swimming, and dive to the ocean bottom to hunt prey. Some animals are capable of running very fast, although they do not have the legs to walk the distance. An animal can also be trapped and starved to death by its own weight. Examples include the bee, which can only subsist on the flowers of plants on the planet, and the mouse, which moves so slowly it can die within days.

All living organisms have a nervous system, a brain, a liver, a stomach to digest their food, and a mouth to catch food pieces. Animals have gills to help them breathe and receive oxygen. An animal may not have any ears to hear sound, but it does sense touch, which helps it distinguish between different living organisms. A bird may recognize human voices, while a worm can recognize other worms.

The animal health and welfare movements focus on animal rights, because animals have been domesticated for far longer than humans have. Domesticated animals are used for food, clothing, and transportation. People who raise animals as pets can benefit from animal rights movements, because animals can suffer from psychological distress, disease, obesity, depression, disease, malnutrition, and pain. If an animal is neglected or abused, animal rights activists can help by putting together petitions, participating in local events, and lobbying for change in the law.

A large portion of the animal kingdom is alive in our world. There are over 400 classifications of living organisms, including all four major categories of animals and birds. An additional thirty-five to fifty different species are not considered true animals because they have a place in another ecosystem or in a separate genus. For example, sharks, cetaceans, porpoises, snails, tunny-muskrat, horses, hippos, jelly-beans, and bees all fall into the phylum Copeia, which is not a true animal kingdom and therefore does not belong with all other animals.

Animal sciences are growing every year. With our ever-changing environment, there is a constant need for advancements in livestock production. Livestock production includes breeding, rearing, handling, and packaging – each of these processes is essential in ensuring the well-being of both human and non-human animal populations. The use of antibiotics and other chemicals is a primary driver behind the rise in diseases and parasitism in modern day livestock farms and this along with habitat loss and pollution is putting at risk our planet’s current and future food supply.