This might be a stupid question for Animal Science majors...

cnp55
Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:44:46 +0000

I was an animal science major, although not at Cornell, many years ago.

I never took a course where we had to dissect anything – but we did have a series of labs where we worked with parts of carcasses that the school obtained from slaughterhouses. I also never took a meats course, but most everyone in the animal science department did. I mostly concentrated on herd management of different species – livestock, dairy, and equine.

I did learn to do various procedures on live animals, but nothing that involved pain for the animals or any sort of cutting or surgery. This was awhile ago and things may have changed.

Essentially animal science, despite my current career in the pet industry, is not about companion animals; it’s about food production ranging from meat products and dairy products, to poultry products and a tiny bit of animal fiber products.

When you are thinking about vet school, remember that it’s medical school for animals. If you would never be interested in medical school, you are probably not interested enough in medicine to go to vet school.