By: Isabella Langer

People Editor

Arthur Schubarth, an 81-year-old rancher in Montana, was sentenced to federal prison on Jul. 11 for cloning endangered sheep and trafficking parts from Asia and to other states. He admitted guilt to two crimes: conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and substantively violating the Lacey Act through Sun River Enterprises LLC. The Lacey Act is a law that bans the trafficking of illegally possessed wildlife, fish, and plants. The rancher will remain in prison for six months and then spend three years under supervised release. His punishment also includes paying a 20 thousand dollar fine to the Lacey Act Reward Fund and four thousand dollars to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

In this chain of events, beginning in 2013 and concluding in 2021, Schubarth conspired with other individuals to create a hybrid sheep that would acquire more money from other breeders and captive hunting facilities. These facilities allow hunters to shoot animals that are fenced in. According to the Humane Society of the United States, “The animals are often semi-tame. Some have even been hand-raised or bottle-fed by humans.” To begin the scheme, Schubarth illegally brought parts from the Marco Polo Argali sheep, one of the largest sheep species in the world. They can weigh 300 pounds or more with horns longer than five feet. He then sent genetic material from argali parts to a lab to develop cloned embryos. Schubarth paid a deposit of four thousand two hundred dollars for the embryos’ creation. At Schubarth Ranch, a 215-acre plot of land in Vaughn, Montana, the rancher and his comrades used artificial breeding to implant 165 cloned embryos into a female sheep. The sheep produced a single male Marco Polo argali named Montana Mountain King or MMK by Schubarth.

Argali sheep are native to the Pamir region of central Asia and prohibited in the state of Montana to protect native sheep from hybridization and disease. They are also protected internationally by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and domestically by the Endangered Species Act. 

He used MMK to impregnate other female sheep that were illegally owned in Montana to create hybrids. To move these sheep through the United States, he forged veterinary inspection certificates. Schubarth also illegally bought the genetic material of Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep and sold them to other states. Additionally, he sold MMK’s semen to other breeders as well as one direct offspring of MMK for ten thousand  dollars. Edward Grace, the assistant director of the US Fish and Wildlife Services Office of Law Enforcement, stated, “This case exemplifies the serious threat that wildlife trafficking poses to our native species and ecosystems. Mr. Schubarth’s actions not only violated multiple laws designed to protect wildlife, but also risked introducing diseases and compromising the genetic integrity of our wild sheep populations.”

(Sources: Smithsonian Magazine, The Guardian, USA Today)