81-year-old American sentenced to six months in prison for creating giant hybrid sheep for hunting

An 81-year-old Montana man was sentenced Monday to six months in federal prison for illegally using tissue and testicles from large sheep hunted in Central Asia and the United States to create hybrid sheep for hunting sheep. trophies in captivity in Texas and Minnesota.

U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris said he had difficulty finding a sentence for Arthur “Jack” Schubarth of Vaughn, Montana. He said he weighed Schubarth’s age and lack of criminal record in handing down a sentence that would deter anyone from trying to “change the genetic makeup of creatures” on Earth.

Morris also fined Schubarth $20,000 and ordered him to pay $4,000 to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Schubarth will be allowed to self-report at a Federal Bureau of Prisons medical facility.

“I will have to work the rest of my life to make up for everything I have done,” Schubarth told the judge just before sentencing.

Schubarth’s lawyer Jason Holden said the cloning of the giant sheep Marco Polo hunted in Kyrgyzstan in 2013 had ruined his client’s “life, reputation and family”.

“I think it broke him,” Holden said.

Holden, in asking for a probation sentence, argued that Schubarth was a hardworking man who always took care of animals and did something no one else could have done by cloning the giant sheep, which he named Montana Mountain King – or MMK.

The animal was confiscated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and is being held at an accredited facility until it can be transferred to a zoo, said Richard Bare, a wildlife service special agent.

Sarah Brown, an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, had asked that Schubarth be sentenced to prison, saying his illegal breeding was widespread, involved other states and endangered the health of other wild animals. The crime involved foresight, was complex and involved many illegal acts, she said.

Schubarth owns Sun River Enterprises LLC, a 215-acre (87-hectare) alternative livestock ranch, which buys, sells and raises “alternative livestock” such as mountain sheep, mountain goats and ungulates, primarily for reservations private hunting grounds, where people kill in captivity. hunting trophies for payment, prosecutors said. He had been in the game farm business since 1987, Schubarth said.

Schubarth pleaded guilty in March to charges that he and five others conspired to use tissue from a Marco Polo sheep illegally brought into the United States to clone that animal, then use the clone and its descendants to create a hybrid species of larger sheep which will be more valuable for captive hunting operations.

Marco Polo sheep are the largest in the world, can weigh 300 pounds (136 kg) and have coiled horns up to 5 feet long, according to court records.