A Man Tried to Create a Giant Hybrid Sheep. It Landed Him in Jail

A common theme in science fiction is the evolution of crime and the laws that prosecute it. While cybercrime is well-known, crimes based on new technologies extend beyond the digital realm. Genetics is one field that lends itself to this.

The protagonist in this story is Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, an 80-year-old rancher from Montana. Schubarth, who’s not a geneticist or lab technician, owns and manages Sun River Enterprises LLC, a 215-acre cattle ranch, also known as Schubarth Ranch.

This ranch was dedicated to breeding, buying, and selling “alternative livestock” such as mountain goats, mouflons, and other ungulates for hunting purposes. In principle, everything was legal.

However, a few months ago, the Department of Justice (DoJ) announced that Schubarth had pleaded guilty to a federal wildlife trafficking charge. His crime? Trying to create a giant hybrid sheep for captive hunting.

Now, he faces six months in prison for two federal environmental crimes: conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and violating the act itself.

The Lacey Act, first passed in 1900 and amended in 1981 and 2008, states that “any importation of injurious wildlife into the United States or its territories or possessions must be authorized under a permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”

Schubarth and his cronies’ plan to create a giant hybrid sheep was complex. According to the DoJ, the plan began with the importation of genetic material from a subspecies of mouflon found in the Pamir Mountains of Kyrgyzstan. This subspecies, Marco Polo argali sheep (Ovis ammon polii), is known as the largest sheep in the world.

These animals can exceed 265 pounds and have horns that can grow up to 5 feet long. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and U.S. law protect this species. Montana state law also prohibits their presence.

Cloning and Hybridization

The second step in the plan was cloning. Schubarth sent genetic material from the imported samples to a laboratory for cloning and received cloned embryos from his Marco Polo ram, which he named Montana Mountain King (MMK).

According to court documents, the DoJ explained that Schubarth and his associates used MMK semen to inseminate female sheep of various species, also banned in Montana, to create hybrid animals that would grow larger and be more valuable for sale to hunting lodges. To accomplish this, they falsified several health documents. The group also sold semen samples directly to buyers in other states.

In addition to the six-month prison sentence, Schubarth was ordered to pay $20,000 to a Lacey Act fund and $4,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The judge, as reported by the Associated Press, noted that the sentence took into account Schubarth’s advanced age and lack of a prior criminal record. He had faced up to 10 years in prison—five years for each offense— and fines totaling up to $500,000.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of the case is that Schubarth’s conviction had little to do with cloning and creating hybrid animals, but rather with importing a species and conspiracy. This may be because authorities considered this part of the plan to pose little risk. Would the same plan have been deemed harmless if Schubarth had used native species?

Sometimes, laws lag behind technologies, creating legal loopholes. As a result, it’s not always easy to prosecute acts that may violate bioethical norms, which aren’t universally understood.

Despite not being convicted for cloning and hybridization, both the judge and the attorney condemned the practice. According to statements from the Associated Press and the DoJ, the judge emphasized the need to deter attempts to “change the genetic makeup of the creatures” on Earth. The attorney called Schubarth’s actions “as unnatural as they were illegal”—an undoubtedly strong stance on the rancher’s activities.

Imagen | Department of Justice edited by Xataka On

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