MOSCOW – When I first heard about the International Medical Leech Center from a colleague, my reaction was probably a typical one for an American: Yuck. Gross.
A breeding center for 150,000 leeches in a small village just outside Moscow did not sound like my ideal location for a story. But when I heard the center’s claims that they raise and sell 10 times the number of leeches than the rest of the world combined, curiosity overcame my initial disgust.
Natasha Lepyoshkina is one of the 29 leech breeders at the center, all of whom are women. According to her, the gender choice is no accident. “You need to have patience with the leeches. You have to be industrious and patient. A man couldn’t do that,” she said.
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Most of the breeders live in the local village and take shifts on weekends to check on the leeches, lending the center a family-like atmosphere. “They won’t ever bite us – they know us too well,” said one breeder as I prepared to dunk my hand in a jar full of hungry leeches. (Maybe it was leech breeders who coined the phrase about biting the hand that feeds you?)
The breeders often referred to the leeches as their children. “Just like a child – we raise them and love them, and once they grow up they leave us,” said Lepyoshkina, as she prepared a batch of 1,000 live leeches to be shipped from the center.
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