Animal
noun
A moving thing... think about the "things" that move. Technically it could be a lot of things (aka basically anything), but in this case we are talking about moving living things. We won't include humans, because humans are too good to be called things. This refers to animals instead.
どうぶつ
This is a jukugo word that uses the on'yomi readings of the kanji. You should be able to read this on your own.
動物は苦手なんです。
I don't like animals.
何か動物はかっていますか。
Do you have any animals?
コウイチがトーフグ動物園に100匹の重要な動物を集めてパーティーを開催したんだけど、何故か私は招待されなかったんだよね。私もコウイチにとっての重要動物の一匹だと思っていたんだけど。
Koichi hosted a party at the Tofugu Zoo for one hundred very important animals and for some reason, I wasn’t invited. I thought I was one of the VIA to him too.