The Influence of Domesticated Animals on Human Welfare

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Ever since animals have been domesticated, they have been very instrumental in providing humans with a plethora of benefits in multiple areas such as agriculture, medicine, and industry (Transgenic Animals). Today, animals and their products are used for almost everything from food to clothing to products we use on an everyday basis. Some argue that animals should not be used as much as they are being utilized; however the use of domesticated animals propelled humans from a nomadic species to a more civilized people. The domestication of animals was a keynote of the beginning of agriculture as a whole, which lead to industrialization and progression as human beings. Domesticated animals play a foremost role in our society today as well as in the future.
Domesticated animals, such as livestock and poultry, are significant in the everyday lives of people across the world. In developing countries, they play a key role as laborers to farmers for whom buying an expensive tractor or sprayer is not financially viable (The Importance of Livestock). From a nutritional standpoint, “animal source foods can provide a variety of micronutrients that are difficult to obtain in adequate quantities from plant source foods alone” (Allen and Murphy 3932S). Thus, animals are a “link” in nutrient cycles because they are able to eat plants and give us not only some of the plant nutrients, which we would normally not be able to take advantage of on our own, but also they give us their own animal nutrients (The Importance of Livestock). Foods from an animal source also provide higher micronutrient levels with less consumption than foods from plants can (Allen and Murphy 3933S). Animals also return some nutrients back to the soil through defecation or d...

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