A Montana man has been sentenced to six months in prison for his involvement in a sheep cloning and breeding scheme involving a rare ovine species.
According to USA Today , 81-year-old Arthur “Jack” Schubarth is going to prison after cloning a rare species of sheep from Asia and implanting the embryos in his own sheep in an attempt to create bigger hybrid sheep. The Department of Justice claims that Schubarth imported parts of a Marco Polo argali sheep, the largest sheep species in the world, into the U.S. from Kyrgyzstan without declaring it to authorities. This was a violation of the Lacey Act, which prohibits the illegal trade of wildlife, fish, and plants, as well as the Endangered Species Act and rules set by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). In Montana, they’re prohibited to protect native sheep from disease and hybridization like this.
Schubarth’s goal, authorities say, was to sell clones of his new hybrid sheep to captive hunting facilities—in other words, shooting preserves or game ranches —for a higher price than what other animals would normally fetch. He wasn’t the only one involved, as at least five other individuals were considered part of the conspiracy, according to a Department of Justice statement …