An 80-year-old Montana man pleaded guilty Tuesday to two wildlife felonies related to his plan to let paying customers hunt sheep on a private ranch. But these are no ordinary old sheep. They are “mega-hybrid sheep” created by illegally importing animal parts from Central Asia, cloning sheep, and then breeding giant hybrids.
Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, 80, owns and operates a 215-acre “replacement livestock operation” in Vaughan, Montana, according to a press release from the company ranch, where he started the operation in 2013. U.S. Department of Justice. Alternative livestock include hybrids of sheep, goats and other large mammals, which are often used by wealthy people for trophy hunting.
According to prosecutors, one of Schubart’s unnamed co-conspirators illegally brought biological tissue from the world’s largest sheep, Marco Polo, into the United States from Kyrgyzstan in 2013, launching a decade-long scheme.
How big are these sheep? The average male weighs over 300 pounds and has horns over 5 feet wide, making them the largest sheep horns on earth. These sheep are endangered and protected by international treaties and U.S. law. Montana also bans the importation of these foreign sheep or their parts to protect native U.S. sheep from disease.
After Schubart smuggled his sheep organs into the United States, he sent them to an unnamed laboratory, which created 165 cloned embryos, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Federal authorities wrote in a press release: “Schubas then implanted the embryos into ewes on his ranch, producing a genetically pure male Marco Polo argali, which he named ‘Montana Mountain King’ or MMK.”
When Schubart owned the Mountain King of Montana, he used semen from cloned sheep to artificially impregnate female sheep, creating hybrid animals. As the Ministry of Justice explains, the goal is to breed these giant new sheep and then use them for sport hunting on large ranches.Schubart also forged veterinary inspection certificates, shipped new crossbred sheep under false pretenses, and sometimes even sold Montana Mountain King semen to other breeders in the United States
According to the indictment filed last month, Schubart shipped 15 artificially inseminated sheep to Minnesota in 2018 and sold 37 tubes of Montana Mountain King semen to someone in Texas. Schubart also offered to sell a descendant of the Montana Mountain King, known as “Montana Black Magic,” to someone in Texas for $10,000.
Discussions between Schubart and an unnamed person apparently included what to call the new sheep breed they were creating. Another person said that another co-conspirator suggested the name “black argali,” although he noted “we can’t,” presumably because that would give away the fact that the sheep were descended from argali. Argali species.
Schubart pleaded guilty to violating the Lacey Act and conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act, which makes it a crime to take, transport or sell wildlife in violation of federal law.
“This was an audacious plan to create large numbers of hybrid sheep breeds that would be sold and hunted as trophies,” Assistant Attorney General Todd King of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division said in a release .
“In carrying out this plan, Schubart violated international law and the Lacey Act, both of which protect the viability and health of local animal populations,” King continued.
Schubart conspired with at least five people not named in the indictment. Schubas faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, and is scheduled to be sentenced in July by Chief Judge Brian M. Morris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana.