Thyroid disease is a common endocrine system disease, and its etiology is complex and diverse. At present, research on thyroid diseases is mainly limited to the evaluation of clinical efficacy of drugs with few studies on the pathogenesis of this disease. Therefore, it is important to establish animal models of thyroid diseases for analyzing pathological mechanisms and improving the clinical efficacy of disease treatment. A successful experimental animal model can not only increase disease samples in a short period of time with low cost but also avoid harm to the human body. Furthermore, animal models have the advantage of stability. This review summarizes the method used to establish animal models of thyroid diseases in recent years, such as those for hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and thyroid cancer, and analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of various models to provide a theoretical basis for the development of related experiments.