An 81-year-old man from Montana was charged Monday with illegally using tissue and testicles from large sheep hunted in Central Asia and the United States to create hybrid sheep for trophy hunting in Texas and Minnesota. A man has been sentenced to six months in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Brian Morris said he had a difficult time sentencing Arthur “Jack” Schubarth of Vaughan, Montana. He said he weighed Schubart’s age and lack of criminal history against a sentence that would thwart anyone else’s attempts to “alter the genetic makeup of life” on Earth.
Mr. Morris also fined Mr. Schubart $20,000 and ordered him to pay $4,000 to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Mr. Schubart will be allowed to self-report to a Federal Bureau of Prisons medical facility.
“I’m going to have to work for the rest of my life to right everything I’ve done,” Schubart told the judge shortly before sentencing.
Mr Schubarth’s lawyer Jason Holden said the cloning of Marco Polo, the giant sheep hunted in Kyrgyzstan in 2013, had ruined his client’s “life, reputation and family”.
“I think this broke his heart,” Holden said.
Holden asked for a suspended sentence, saying that Schubarth was a hard-working man who had always cared for animals and that he had surpassed anyone else in cloning the giant sheep he named Montana Mountain King (MMK). He claimed to have done what he could not have done.
The animal was seized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and is being held in an accredited facility until it can be transferred to a zoo, said Richard Bear, a special agent with the wildlife agency.
Sarah Brown, an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, argued that Schubart’s illegal breeding activities were widespread, involving other states, and endangering the health of other wildlife. I was asked to hand over the sentence. The crime was pre-planned, complex and involved many illegal acts, she said.
Mr. Schubart owns Sun River Enterprises LLC, a 215-acre (87-hectare) alternative livestock ranch where he raises mountain sheep, mountain goats, and ungulates for a private hunting preserve that primarily shoots captives. We purchase, sell, and breed “alternative livestock” such as Prosecutors said the trophy game animals were provided for a fee. Schubart said he has been in the hunting and ranching business since 1987.
Schubart conspired with five others to use tissue from Marco Polo sheep illegally brought into the United States to clone the animals, and then used the clones and their offspring to create larger hybrid sheep breeds. He pleaded guilty in March to conspiring to create a More valuable for captive hunting activities.
Marco Polo sheep are the world’s largest sheep, weighing 300 pounds (136 kg) and with curled horns up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) long, according to court records.
