An 80-year-old Montana man pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of felony wildlife crimes in connection with a scheme to allow paying customers to hunt sheep on a private ranch. But these weren't just old sheep. It was a „giant hybrid sheep“ created by illegally importing animal parts from Central Asia, cloning the sheep, and breeding a giant hybrid breed.
Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, 80, owns and operates a 215-acre “alternative livestock” ranch in Vaughan, Montana, which he closed in 2013, according to a press release from the paper. It is said that it has started. US Department of Justice. Alternative livestock include hybrids of mountain goats, mountain goats, and other large mammals often used for trophy hunting by the wealthy.
Prosecutors say Schubart's anonymous accomplices began a decade-long scheme to illegally smuggle living tissue from the world's largest sheep, the Marco Polo sheep, into the United States from Kyrgyzstan in 2013.
How big is this sheep? The average male weighs over 300 pounds and has horns over 5 feet wide, making them the largest sheep horns on earth. Sheep are endangered and protected by both international treaties and U.S. law. Montana also bans the import of these foreign sheep or their parts to protect local American sheep from disease.
According to the Justice Department, Mr. Schubert smuggled some of the sheep into the United States and sent them to an unnamed lab, where he cloned 165 embryos.
„Mr. Schubart then implanted the embryo into a ewe on his farm and produced a single male Marco Polo Argali with pure genetics, which he named 'Montana Mountain King' or MMK. ,” federal authorities said in a press release.
By the time Schubarth created the Montana Mountain King, he had created a hybrid animal by artificially impregnating female sheep using semen from cloned sheep. The goal, the Justice Department explained, was to create a huge new breed of sheep that could be used for sport hunting on large ranches. Schubart also forged veterinary inspection certificates to transport new hybrid sheep under false pretenses, and sometimes even sold semen from his Montana Mountain Kings to other breeders in the United States.
According to an indictment filed last month, Schubert shipped 15 artificially inseminated sheep to Minnesota in 2018 and sold 37 semen straws from Mountain King, Montana, to someone in Texas. Schubert also offered to sell a descendant of the Montana Mountain King, called Montana Black Magic, to someone in Texas for $10,000.
Discussions between Schubart and the anonymous person appear to have included what to call this new breed of sheep they were creating. Another official said another conspirator suggested the name „Black Argali“ but „it can't be done,“ but perhaps it reveals the fact that these sheep are descended from black people. He said this was because it would become a big deal. Argali species.
Schubart pled guilty to violating the Lacey Act, which makes it a crime to obtain, transport, or sell wild animals in violation of federal law, and to conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act.
„This was an audacious scheme to produce large numbers of hybrid sheep to be sold and hunted as trophies,“ Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division said in a press release.
„In pursuing this plan, Schubart violated international law and the Lacey Act, both of which protect the viability and health of native animal populations,“ Kim continued.
Schubart conspired with at least five other people who are not named in the indictment. Schubart faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, and is scheduled to be sentenced by Chief Judge Brian M. Morris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana in July.