US Man Jailed for Cloning and Breeding Giant Sheep
An 81-year-old Montana man has been given six months in prison for illegally using tissue from large sheep hunted in Central Asia to create hybrid sheep for captive trophy hunting in Texas and Minnesota.
Arthur "Jack" Schubarth of Vaughn, Montana is the owner of a ranch, which buys, sells and breeds animals such as mountain sheep and mountain goats. These are sold to private hunting preserves, where people shoot captive game animals for a fee.
Schubarth pleaded guilty in March to charges that he cloned tissue from a Marco Polo sheep brought illegally into the US.
Marco Polo sheep are the largest in the world, can weigh 136 kilograms and have horns up to 1.5 meters long. The species is endangered and is protected internationally by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and in the US by the Endangered Species Act.
Marco Polo sheep are also prohibited in Montana to protect native sheep from disease or hybridization.
Schubarth used the Marco Polo sheep tissue to produce a pure clone of a Marco Polo sheep, which he called the Montana Mountain King or MMK. He then used that clone to create a larger, hybrid species of sheep that would be more valuable for captive hunting.
Hybrids were sold to people in Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas and West Virginia. Prosecutors said the total value of the animals involved was between $250,000 and $550,000.
US District Court Judge Brian Morris said in deciding a sentence he had considered Schubarth's age and lack of a criminal record with the need to deter others from trying to "change the genetic makeup of the creatures" on the earth.
Schubarth was also fined $20,000 and made to pay $4,000 to the US Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Schubarth will not be allowed to breed game animals during the three years he is on probation.
Schubarth's MMK will be transferred to a zoo. The remaining hybrid sheep on Schubarth's ranch must be killed by the end of the year and the meat donated.
