Montana rancher illegally created giant hybrid sheep to sell for thousands

A Montana rancher created giant hybrid sheep and sold them for hunting, creating the lambs by using illegally imported genetic material from the world’s largest sheep species, federal prosecutors say.

The moneymaking scheme sought to create a hybrid species of sheep that could be sold at a high price to hunting preserves in the United States and would mimic the world’s biggest breed, the Marco Polo argali sheep, a threatened species that lives in central Asia and is prized by trophy hunters.

Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, 80, created more than 150 cloned embryos of the species and successfully bred a male Marco Polo argali, selling one of its offspring for $10,000, according to the criminal complaint filed against him by federal prosecutors. He used the sheep’s semen to breed it with other species, creating hybrid sheep and selling them to people in Texas and Minnesota.

Schubarth pleaded guilty to the two felony wildlife counts against him in March in federal court. He faces up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $500,000.

Schubarth sold and bred mountain sheep, mountain goats and similar breeds at his 215-acre ranch in Vaughn, Mont. He began his effort to clone the Marco Polo argali in 2013, working with at least five other people - all unnamed in court documents - over the course of eight years, prosecutors said. No one else has been charged in connection with the case, the Justice Department said Thursday.

“This was an audacious scheme to create massive hybrid sheep species to be sold and hunted as trophies,” Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division said in a statement.

Schubarth’s attorney, Jason Holden, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Post.

Marco Polo argali sheep have distinctive spiraling horns and can weigh more than 300 pounds. They are big prizes for trophy hunters, who travel to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Mongolia to hunt them.

The breed is protected by an international convention and under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, which lists the species as threatened. They are on Montana’s list of prohibited exotic wildlife.

Sheep with larger horns and bodies are worth more to hunters, including at private shooting preserves, where hunters pay to pursue captive game. That means they can be sold to such facilities at higher prices.

To carry out his scheme, Schubarth obtained tissue from a Marco Polo argali that had been hunted in Kyrgyzstan from someone who smuggled it into the United States, according to the complaint. He then took the sheep tissue to a lab, which used it to create 165 cloned embryos.

Schubarth had embryos implanted in some of the ewes on his ranch, which resulted in the birth of a purebred male Marco Polo argali, which Schubarth named Montana Mountain King.

He then used Montana Mountain King’s sperm to impregnate other species of ewe, bringing species that are prohibited in Montana across state lines to do so. That also included buying and selling parts of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in violation of state laws, according to prosecutors. He also sold Montana Mountain King’s semen.

The scheme broke state and federal laws relating to animal import and export, game animals and animal protection. By introducing new genetic material into sheep, it also potentially threatened the health of native sheep populations, prosecutors and state wildlife officials said.

“The kind of crime we uncovered here could threaten the integrity of our wildlife species in Montana,” said Ron Howell, chief of enforcement for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.

In court documents, prosecutors described an elaborate effort among Schubarth and others to breed and transport the sheep. Someone he worked with falsely declared Montana Mountain King’s offspring as a different species to obtain state veterinary certificates that would permit them to move the sheep across state lines, the complaint alleges. Another accomplice was the person who allegedly brought the hunted Marco Polo argali tissue to the United States.

Schubarth sold dozens of straws of Montana Mountain King’s semen to people in Texas and Minnesota, and they illegally moved ewes from both states to Schubarth’s ranch to be artificially inseminated, the complaint alleges. They then transported Montana Mountain King’s offspring to Texas and Minnesota.

In addition to the $10,000 sheep, Schubarth sold 11 sheep with one-quarter of Montana Mountain King’s genetics for $13,200 total to two people in Texas, prosecutors said.

Schubarth is set to be sentenced July 11 in Montana.