killed. Some things have changed in Primorye, but one thing hasn’t and
that is the hazardous business of dealing with poachers. In November of
2008, Trush was on a raid in the new park when he and his team
confronted a group of Nanai poachers, one of whom fired three shots at
Trush’s squad mate. The shots missed, and Trush chased the shooter
down. He managed to catch him and disarm him, but during the struggle,
Trush was stabbed in the hand. Ultimately, he managed to handcuff the
man, who turned out to be drunk. Shortly afterward, Trush had a heart
attack; in August of 2009, he underwent triple bypass surgery. Trush is
nearly sixty, and this kind of high-stress, high-impact field enforcement
is a young man’s job. If anything, the working environment is only
growing more dangerous, but within weeks of his surgery, Trush was
back on patrol in the taiga. “Nature has decided there should be a tiger
here,” he said. And Trush’s vocation, as he describes it, is to see that it
remains. Summoning a Russian proverb, he added, “Hope dies last.”
- This refers to shotgun shells, which Onofreychuk claimed would put
dogs at risk of getting hit due to the spreading nature of buckshot. - In 2009, the park’s areas was reduced dramatically.