And finally… fall of the mountain king
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Credit: US Department of Justice
A man has been jailed for six months for his leading role in a decade-long effort to create “giant sheep hybrids” using illegal cloning techniques.
Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, 81, admitted smuggling parts of the largest sheep in the world — Marco Polo argali sheep (Ovis ammon polii) — from Kyrgyzstan into the United States as part of the scheme.
He sent genetic material from the argali parts to a lab to create cloned embryos, which he then implanted in ewes on his ranch, producing a single, pure genetic male Marco Polo argali.
Schubarth named this cloned sheep “Montana Mountain King” or MMK.
He then allegedly conspired with others to use MMK’s semen to artificially impregnate various other species of ewes — all of which were prohibited in Montana — and create hybrid animals.
The goal was to sell the hybrid animals to shooting preserves or game ranches.
U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich for the District of Montana said: “Schubarth’s criminal conduct is not how Montanans treat our wildlife population…
“Such actions to create hybrid animals are as unnatural as they are illegal, and I applaud the extensive collaboration and diligence of all of our law enforcement partners to bring Schubarth to justice.”
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