Current:Home > NewsMontana man to be sentenced for cloning giant sheep to breed large sheep for captive trophy hunts-VaTradeCoin
Montana man to be sentenced for cloning giant sheep to breed large sheep for captive trophy hunts
lotradecoin beginners View Date:2024-12-25 22:39:20
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — An 81-year-old Montana man faces sentencing in federal court Monday in Great Falls for illegally using tissue and testicles from large sheep hunted in Central Asia and the U.S. to illegally create hybrid sheep for captive trophy hunting in Texas and Minnesota.
Prosecutors are not seeking prison time for Arthur “Jack” Schubarth of Vaughn, Montana, according to court records. He is asking for a one-year probationary sentence for violating the federal wildlife trafficking laws. The maximum punishment for the two Lacey Act violations is five years in prison. The fine can be up to $250,000 or twice the defendant’s financial gain.
In his request for the probationary sentence, Schubarth’s attorney said cloning the giant Marco Polo sheep hunted in Kyrgyzstan has ruined his client’s “life, reputation and family.”
However, the sentencing memorandum also congratulates Schubarth for successfully cloning the endangered sheep, which he named Montana Mountain King. The animal has been confiscated by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.
“Jack did something no one else could, or has ever done,” the memo said. “On a ranch, in a barn in Montana, he created Montana Mountain King. MMK is an extraordinary animal, born of science, and from a man who, if he could re-write history, would have left the challenge of cloning a Marco Polo only to the imagination of Michael Crichton,” who is the author of the science fiction novel Jurassic Park.
Schubarth owns Sun River Enterprises LLC, a 215-acre (87-hectare) alternative livestock ranch, which buys, sells and breeds “alternative livestock” such as mountain sheep, mountain goats and ungulates, primarily for private hunting preserves, where people shoot captive trophy game animals for a fee, prosecutors said. He had been in the game farm business since 1987, Schubarth said.
Schubarth pleaded guilty in March to charges that he and five other people conspired to use tissue from a Marco Polo sheep illegally brought into the U.S. to clone that animal and then use the clone and its descendants to create a larger, hybrid species of sheep that would be more valuable for captive hunting operations.
Marco Polo sheep are the largest in the world, can weigh 300 pounds (136 kilograms) and have curled horns up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) long, court records said.
Schubarth sold semen from MMK along with hybrid sheep to three people in Texas, while a Minnesota resident brought 74 sheep to Schubarth’s ranch for them to be inseminated at various times during the conspiracy, court records said. Schubarth sold one direct offspring from MMK for $10,000 and other sheep with lesser MMK genetics for smaller amounts.
In October 2019, court records said, Schubarth paid a hunting guide $400 for the testicles of a trophy-sized Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep that had been harvested in Montana and then extracted and sold the semen, court records said.
Sheep breeds that are not allowed in Montana were brought into the state as part of the conspiracy, including 43 sheep from Texas, prosecutors said.
The five co-conspirators were not named in court records, but Schubarth’s plea agreement requires him to cooperate fully with prosecutors and testify if called to do so. The case is still being investigated, Montana wildlife officials said.
Schubarth, in a letter attached to the sentencing memo, said he becomes extremely passionate about any project he takes on, including his “sheep project,” and is ashamed of his actions.
“I got my normal mindset clouded by my enthusiasm and looked for any grey area in the law to make the best sheep I could for this sheep industry,” he wrote. “My family has never been broke, but we are now.”
veryGood! (9477)
Related
- Netizens raise privacy concerns over Acra's Bizfile search function revealing citizens' IC numbers
- Only Permitted Great Lakes Offshore Wind Farm Put on Hold
- Ukraine’s human rights envoy calls for a faster way to bring back children deported by Russia
- New Deion Sanders documentary series: pins, needles and blunt comments
- What was 2024's best movie? From 'The Substance' to 'Conclave,' our top 10
- With no supermarket for residents of Atlantic City, New Jersey and hospitals create mobile groceries
- Massachusetts attorney general files civil rights lawsuit against white nationalist group
- Organized retail crime figure retracted by retail lobbyists
- Sabrina Carpenter Shares Her Self
- Pope Francis makes his first public appearances since being stricken by bronchitis
Ranking
- Bill Belichick's salary at North Carolina: School releases football coach's contract details
- Mick Jagger's Girlfriend Melanie Hamrick Shares Rare Photos of Rocker With His 7-Year-Old Deveraux
- Timothée Chalamet says 'Wonka' is his parents' 'favorite' movie that he's ever done
- Ukraine’s human rights envoy calls for a faster way to bring back children deported by Russia
- How to watch the 'Blue Bloods' Season 14 finale: Final episode premiere date, cast
- China says its warplanes shadowed trespassing U.S. Navy spy plane over Taiwan Strait
- 1 member of family slain in suburban Chicago was in relationship with shooting suspect, police say
- Nicki Minaj's bars, Barbz and beefs; plus, why 2023 was the year of the cowboy
Recommendation
-
How to watch 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' for free: Special date, streaming info
-
Exclusive chat with MLS commish: Why Don Garber missed most important goal in MLS history
-
How Gisele Bündchen Blocks Out the Noise on Social Media
-
NBA getting what it wants from In-Season Tournament, including LeBron James in the final
-
Dick Van Dyke credits neighbors with saving his life and home during Malibu fire
-
Some eye colors are more common than others. Which one is the rarest?
-
Mick Jagger's Girlfriend Melanie Hamrick Shares Rare Photos of Rocker With His 7-Year-Old Deveraux
-
Some eye colors are more common than others. Which one is the rarest?