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# I happened to read a fragment of the memoirs of Lyubov and Boris Fedotov, animal trainers quite well known in the USSR
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/sluchaino-prochital-fragment-vospominanii-dovolno-izvestnykh-v-sssr-dressirovshchikov-liubovi-i-borisa-fedotovykh/
- Published: 2026-02-06T08:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:27:05.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Almaty, Archive, Books, Observations, Mores

I happened to read a fragment of the memoirs of Lyubov and Boris Fedotov, animal trainers quite well known in the USSR. It is a very sad story, I say at once. So if you fear pain, do not read the text that follows.

The Fedotovs write of the hardships of their professional lot. And, what surprised me, they share scraps of information about the fates of their animals.

> How could one forget, for example, how in one Siberian city, in bitter frost, we had to make our own way on foot from the station to the circus! The poor camels, after going a short distance, simply lowered themselves onto the snowy carpet, and their exhausted eyes seemed to say: “Leave us! We shall go no further...” As it later turned out, we were simply not expected in that city.

> It also happened that some “experiments” proved, alas, beyond the strength of our charges. I recall with a shudder the long journey to Alma-Ata, which turned out to be in vain, for from there we were at once redirected elsewhere. As a result the animals spent more than two weeks “on wheels”. And it is no wonder that, despite all our efforts, some of them did not endure the ordeal: they fell gravely ill, and one of the eagles did not live to see the final destination at all.

> I want to tell of another sad case as well. At the Zaporozhye circus it was decided to carry out disinfection. On learning of the impending offensive against the cockroaches, I asked the circus management not to do it while animals were in the building. My request was ignored, and the result was Report of Expert Examination No. 169 of the Zaporozhye regional veterinary laboratory, dated 10 August 1979, which records that organophosphorus compounds were found in a sample of the liver of a dead dog. The victim of this heartlessness was the black Great Dane Black, our favourite and an uncommonly talented “performer”.

> It is not hard to imagine what the death of an animal means to us trainers. All of them, the zebras and llamas and ostriches and ponies and camels and dogs, are, without exaggeration, our friends. They are like members of our family. We have learned to understand them, and they us; we sense the mood of each of them, we love them and are happy that they answer us with affection.

> Of course, anything may happen to animals, for we have to perform in different climatic zones. Fodder is not always in good order, and not everywhere are there sufficiently qualified veterinary specialists... In short, losses are possible. But when they occur as a result of elementary negligence, the feelings of regret and bitterness are mixed with no small measure of resentment and indignation.