Animal husbandry is simply the profession of selective breeding of carefully selected specimens of any species to produce or enhance desirable traits and characteristics, thus improving both the stock and the species in general.
Animal husbandry, for anyone who chooses to pursue it, can be anything from a serious hobby, which you indulge in for personal reasons to achieve a better quality pet; to Part-time work in the breeding and selling of pets; For a serious, advanced, and living profession. The demand for a variety and quality of livestock and pets is increasing and has in fact risen rapidly during the early years of the twenty-first century, particularly in the developing world. This has caused farm animal and pet farming to become an increasingly important sector.
Animal husbandry at its best is a perfect blend of science and art. Any really skilled breeder should have a good knowledge base of animal genetics and health issues, as well as the purpose for which the animal is likely to be used. However, at its worst, animal husbandry can often be a kind of sloppy business whose main concern is pure profit, and little attention is paid to the health and welfare of animals. This type of breeding that is most common in pets is often carried out by random and ignorant breeders and is carried out on a small scale. There are also mass breeding programs such as puppy mills implemented by larger companies where the animals are treated as little more than puppy-making machines.
However, there are many excellent small-scale breeding programs that are run from people's homes as well as profitable large-scale operations run by experienced staff with good veterinary care for the animals.
For most of the twentieth century, animal husbandry activity in Western countries ignored the rest of the animal genetic resources of other countries. However, with the increase in demand, the use and development of a group of local breeds adapted to the specific climate increased. In this changing global scenario of increasing demand and progressively more affluent human populations in these nations, animal agriculture has intensified into most production environments available, to meet these newly emerging demands of the twenty-first century.
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