The owner of a private zoo near Minsk reads news to a leopard and buys grenades for wild pigs for dessert.

News Topics Many have tried their hand at business, but not everyone has stayed in it. Only the strongest continue their work. - one of them. Now he is the owner of the Volgotnoye farm and the HEAD of the Count's Heritage agro-estate, where there is a zoo and a small museum of household items used by peasants on the Czapski estate.
The eyes are afraid, but the hands are busy.

When in the mid-1990s, the former head of the motor depot, Yuri Karpilovich, decided to open his own business, he first went to one collective farm chairman with a request:

- Rent out what is a burden to you!

The manager suggested an unprofitable team:

“It’s dragging me down in all respects, but maybe you’ll like it.” Let's go, I'll show you!

And he took Yuri Karpilovich to the village of Podgai near MINSK.

- When I saw that beauty - the field running from hill to hill, the Ptich River flowing behind the fence, the forest, the trees on the outskirts of Podgai, where the new farm was located - I immediately said: this is Belarusian Switzerland , I’ll take it! - recalls the farmer .

The destruction of the former collective farm buildings did not frighten him. They shook hands with the chairman. So, having two higher educations, but none of them in agriculture, the aspiring farmer began to study. I read books, consulted with experts, first rented and then leased equipment. He put things in order around the estate, built roads, and repaired the water supply system. The residents of Podgai understood: it was not a temporary worker who came to earth - the owner. Collective farmers also believed that Yuri Karpilovich was a thorough person. In 2000, they voted to sell all outbuildings on the property to a tenant. And the state has already automatically transferred 100 hectares of farm land to him. So 24 years ago, 38-year-old Yuri Vladimirovich became an agrarian.

To the delight of people and himself,

the owner of the agro-estate "Count's Heritage" treats Count Czapski, who owned local lands in tsarist times, with special reverence. Conducting a tour along the museum exhibits, Yuri Vladimirovich recounts the merits of Karl Emerikovich Czapsky, a large landowner from the Hutten-Chapsky family:

- He is the first mayor of Minsk, founded a brewery, built the first power plant on Svisloch, opened the first shelter for the homeless, launched the first horse-drawn tram! Unlike his noble neighbors, who forced peasants to sprinkle SALT on the road so they could ride sleighs in the summer, Czapski tried to make the work of farmers easier. For example, I suggested that they use prototypes of agricultural machinery; they are in my museum. Let's go, I'll show you.

Now these tools of labor of local peasants of the 19th - early 20th centuries may seem clumsy, but for their time they were a real breakthrough in agriculture. Yuri Karpilovich himself, of course, did not organize a revolution in the agricultural sector, but under him, as once under Chapsky, the local lands began to bring good profits. Farming grew due to the cultivation of SUGAR beets, and locals began to call Yuri Vladimirovich the “sugar king.” And he is ready to talk for hours about how difficult and long the journey was, how equipment was acquired, how the number of cattle and horses grew. But most of all the warmth is in the stories about the inhabitants of his zoo, because it is to them that the soul now responds.

The zoo was a long-time dream for Yuri Vladimirovich, which came true only three years ago. As a boy he asked his parents: let’s at least get a dog! Now, having gotten firmly on his feet, he can afford to have anyone he wants.

- The first were two wolves. Now the farm has 40 species of animals and birds, of which only 3 are domestic: Shetland ponies, Aberdeen Angus cows and horses - Soviet heavy draft and Belarusian draft horses, says the owner of all these animals.
He can talk about each of the inhabitants for a long time, but first of all he leads us to the cats, fenced off from visitors by reliable bars: they are predators after all! The lion Simba looks at us from the first enclosure. Yuri Karpilovich drove him two thousand kilometers from Ufa as a child. Now a powerful predator, when it sees its owner, it immediately approaches the bars so that it can pat it on the back of the neck.

- Here is the collar and leash on which I recently walked a lion cub around the territory. And now Simba has become too strong. “Once he pulled the leash so hard that he rolled me on the ground on my belly,” says the farmer.

In the neighboring enclosure, after a hearty lunch, two Amur tigers are resting: the boy Timurka and the girl Amurka. Beautiful, sleek - a sight to behold!
- They are 3.3 years old and weigh about 300 kilos! - the guide surprises us and recalls how he bought them as kids from the owners of a traveling circus in Chechnya.

Today, the owner is reminded of this even longer trip than in Ufa by a saber and a hat given by one very important person.

The most scandalous inhabitant of the zoo

Another favorite of Yuri Vladimirovich is the Far Eastern leopard Tigger. We learn from the owner that four years ago there were only 50 such leopards in the world, now there are more than 100. And five of them live in Belarus: two each in the Minsk and Grodno zoos, one in the farmstead zoo in the village of Podgai.

- When I brought him home, Tigger was nervous: the cage was shaking! - the interlocutor recalls how he managed to calm the leopard. - So that he gets used to me, sits next to me and reads to him... the news. Little by little Tigger calmed down and we became friends. Now every day awaits me... I love him very much, I spoil him: in addition to five kilograms of MEAT, he receives three more eggs a day , and in the summer - goat's MILK . True, when I enter the cage, I leave food, but I no longer pet Tigger: the leopard is one of the most dangerous and unpredictable animals. Now he is resting, and will begin to become active later in the evening.

While we are getting acquainted with the felines, a zoo worker brings in a herd of Bactrian camels. Desert ships of enormous size and unusual appearance for our region are favorites of zoo visitors. Including thanks to the kindness of your soul. At least at the time we met, they were very nice and friendly.

The most scandalous inhabitant of the zoo is the swan. As soon as we approached his enclosure with a small lake, he pecked each of us through the net.

“Everyone is jealous of his swan,” Yuri Vladimirovich smiles and clarifies: “But no matter how much he pecks, he doesn’t fly away.” He knows that food like this cannot be found here.

This opinion about the gastronomic advantages of the poultry farm is shared by the Kholmogory geese, which, unlike swans, have orange, not black paws... Not far from them are guinea fowl, peacocks and pheasants.

A few meters away from them lives the jealous deer Olezhka. In his rather large enclosure he is alone. But next to the yak Gavryusha is the living space of the bison Vasilina. The owner of the zoo is pleased with their proximity: both are good guys. True, sometimes the yak still wants to show off and get excited.

- Notice what an appetite they have! - Yuri Vladimirovich points to the rounded sides of the inhabitants of the enclosures, who recently dined on vegetables, fruits and dried bagels with buns. Today the wild pig Maria Ivanovna and her entire family

are dining on apples and bagels . “Mar Ivanna, let me scratch behind your ear,” the farmer calls her and notes how masterfully the pigs peel pomegranates. The zoo owner buys them at a reasonable price on the wholesale market. Forward into a fairy tale We walk past enclosures with wonderful sheep, mountain goats, sleeping raccoons, graceful alpacas, rabbits and hares, wolves and a wild dingo dog that never stops barking. - Please note: there is plenty of space for animals. The enclosures are spacious - larger than in some zoos, and almost all are under the shade of trees. I treat the maintenance of each group of animals professionally: I use the methods of the best zoos. As for the wild ones, not a single one of them was taken from the wild,” says Yuri Vladimirovich and leads them to a small bridge under a stylized mill. Here the tour of the zoo ends. The bridge leads straight to Baba Yaga’s house, which the owner bought somewhere for the occasion and installed it on a solid foundation. “The hut is more than a hundred years old,” the farmer notes and invites him to visit Baba Yaga.














Her room is cozy and spacious. Furniture: an antique wardrobe . And the place of honor is occupied by the stove, where the hostess, according to the guide, warms herself in bad weather. The youngest visitors to the zoo like to visit the old lady. By the way, pupils of the Cherven boarding school have been here more than once. Yuri Vladimirovich invited them to the agricultural estate personally, without charging a penny for the visit.

“He took me around the zoo, rode donkeys harnessed to carts, and treated me to tea and cookies,” says Yuri Karpilovich. - I don’t even know for whom visiting the zoo was a greater joy: for these children or for me...

When businesses support each other

The zoo is the youngest area of ​​activity. It works on Sundays, and, of course, does not cover its maintenance costs. But the farmer is not worried about this, because, firstly, the zoo for the most part is a matter for the soul, and secondly, other types of activities bring money . Now Yuri Vladimirovich has decided to rely on pedigree breeds of ponies and cows. The first ones are for those who want to see mini-horses on their farm, the second ones are for those who see the future in marbled beef.

We found five dozen Aberdeen Angus heifers, together with the stud bull Vasily, on the levada - conditionally free grazing. Part of the herd lay down on a warm rookery made of straw, the rest went into a small forest. But as soon as they hear the signal from the forklift driver who brought the food, everyone runs together to the feeding table. For lunch - fragrant silage, hay and something tasty.
“A mass calving of Aberdeen Angus is planned for the summer,” says the farmer, whose vast farm stretches beyond the horizon.

He expects that there will be many people who want to have their own herds of the Scottish beef breed, which produces excellent marbled steaks. Then farmer Yuri Karpilovich will have money, in particular, for further improvement of the zoo.

“This is how one line of activity complements and supports another,” the head of the farm and agricultural estate, whose Aberdeen Angus is not his last trump card, smiles into his beard.

Yuri Karpilovich has another dream - to start producing water. On the territory of his farm there are underground springs, where the water is delicious and of the best consumer quality: just pump it. People will definitely like this water!

created using targeted funds for the production of national content.

Tamara MARKINA,
photo - Tatiana MATUSEVICH,
newspaper "7 days".