The first book about pets ever to appear on my reading list was "How To Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog)" by Lee Alan Dugatkin and Lyudmila Trut. It was about the grand experiment engineered by Dmitri Belyaev as he supervised fox farming in Siberia. Fox pelts were very profitable for the communist government of the Soviet Union back during the Stalin era.
And while Stalin opposed intellectualism and genetic studies, he supported any efforts to improve the production of the pelts. So Dmitri Belyaev had a way to conduct clandestine experimentation at a fox farm. The foxes there were predominately wild and aggressive. But occasionally some of them didn't show as much hostility to their human minders as others. Mr. Belyaev's experiment began with breeding the tamest males with the tamest females. Then with the help of Lyudmila Trut, one of Mr. Belyaev's loyal assistant and the book's co-author, he continued breeding the tamest offspring of the experiment's progeny.
The first "pet" to result was a loving and lovable fox they named Pushinka. It was touching to read about Pushinka and how much she was like the domesticated dogs we know.
The book was very enjoyable, except for the part describing how thugs looking for valuable fox pelts broke into the house where Pushinka and her pups lived. Skip that part.
In any event, the book brings to light the personalities of the people and animals involved in that novel experiment. And any pet lover will appreciate the efforts those people put into the project. For a sneak peak see How To Tame a Fox—and Build a Dog at moderndogmagazine.com.
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2:44 PM 2/3/2020
Glad you enjoyed the book!
Posted by: Lee Dugatkin | February 10, 2020 at 08:30 AM
Lee, it was an absolute delight!
Posted by: Geo | February 11, 2020 at 03:18 PM