European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 6, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                , High class living. These and Simitar Homes Lor cals and Birds. Are stylized Multi room structures Wilh such natures to Hardwood floors la Posly Cov Rcd Walls chem phys and windows although aha will not give figures Garber tha company s founder said she 13 very pleased Wilh the level of response the company has gotten in its eight it tonics of operation. J a rap the largest segment of the pet accessory business Isi gourmet and health foods lick your chops inc., a Westport  Chain with stores in new York Pennsylvania and Connecticut began offering ils health oriented line of pet foods vitamins and cosmetics two years ago its i prices Are almost twice that of supermarket brands but Susan Goldstein lha company s president says tha products Are Selling wed. I americans Ara vary health conscious and that s begun to spill Over to their pets Goldstein said last year lick your chops grossed $800,000, to has several i new stores scheduled to open within the next Low months and Goldstein is predicting a 50 percent increase in sales for 1987,. We have a Strong Middle class clientele so it s not just the affluent Consumers that Are generating the  she said colourful sex Ole Birds have become increasingly popular among americans in the 1980s, and Bird sales accounted for about 20 percent of the $ 1.8 billion in pet store sales. I but there is a Supply crunch looming Asia Africa Central and South America the prime sources of such popular Birds As african Gray parrots toucans and macaws Are curtailing exports out of fear that the species will became extinct on lop of that new York has passed a Law prohibiting the sate of wild caught Birds and other slates Are expected to follow Suil the result is that american breeders Are getting into the exotic Bird business. Because of the demand species after species had begun to disappear said Bruning of the new York zoological society adding that 20 percent of imported Birds die during the initial quarantine. Mow the idea is to encourage breeders to bread Birds for Sale As opposed to getting them from the wilds he said. The profits can be considerable. Ford Fernandez owner of the Bird Jungle a Large Greenwich Village retailer of Birds said he recently sold a Young pair of for Koa Brac a Cleolus parrots a particularly colourful species for $6,000. Within less than a Day of having Hern in Stock. Two years ago he said they might have taken a month to sell and would have fetched half the Price. Prices have gone up considerably As he Supply of some of the More exotic Birds has  said Fernandez who added that his sales last year were $250,000, up 20 percent from 1985. Domestic Breeding is the name of the game now and there Are several Hundred breeders As compared a glued with the growth of High technology medic or and the intellectually stimulating environment Oil cred. Slates without veterinary schools came under pressure to establish them and eight did so in the last is years. Until the late 1950s the profession was looked upon As predominantly mate because faculties believed thai women could not handle big animals. Then  were developed. That look away the old argument Hal women Wera not physically Strong enough Loew said he Lor Casl that by the year 2000 about 30 percent of veterinarians would be women. Veterinarians average Only $47,000 a year a said compared Wilh $106,000 Lor medical doctors and $65.000 Lor dentists nonetheless Loev added he was bullish on the  or. Hugh b Lewis Dean of the school of veterinary Medicine at Purdue University understands that Starling salaries arc Low in some areas about $24,000 for veterinarians entering a practice and More if they work for corporations or government in a Laboratory however he thinks that students willing to go through the required Lour Post College years of graduate school to earn a dam a doctor of veterinary Medicine degree can find interest no Obs. A Loo shares Loew s enthusiasm Lor the Licud and adds that this is a time of Good demand Lor veterinarians. There is a Strong perception that Loo  practitioners Are being produced by veterinary schools and it is hurling the profession he said adding that apparently same established veterinarians res Cal Competition. Lewis wants educational requirements changed. He would shorten the training period to six years from eight he proposes Lour College years with Sams ipe Sial animal study courses brought into the undergraduate period and two years after College which would include clinical training Tor those whose practice might consist of Small animals farm animals or horses students interested in such Laboratory specialities As pharmacology or toxicology could Lake add lion at training beyond the six years. New disciplines Are arising from a continuous Stream of discoveries Lewis said. He worries that the explosive volume of n w information surpasses tha capability of both faculty to present it and students to absorb it in the four traditional graduate years. As in so Many other Piclas. There will be a what he called the inexorable process of  Loew agrees about the trend toward specialization noting that in Boston Here is a dam who specializes in animal ophthalmology. Loew offered Thi career advice my theory is Hal children learn to read using books about animals Early in their lives they Are interested in animals wanting to be a dog handler a Vel or a Wilde observer those  go to veterinary school never lose this interest to said urging Hal they should follow their instincts if they still Havo that career desire  they reach College. It has never Boon easier to get into vet school than now to said explaining that there has been a Sharp decline in applicants partly because of a decline in College age people partly because of problems in Midwest agriculture where Many vets have built practices entering on Arm animals and partly because of the Low Starling salaries. The stars and stripes Page 15