US rancher pleads guilty in scheme to create giant sheep hybrid to be hunted as trophies

MONTANA - In January 2013, a Montana livestock worker returned to the United States from Kyrgyzstan hiding tissue from a Marco Polo argali sheep, one of the largest in the world, federal prosecutors said.

The worker took the tissue to Arthur Schubarth, 80, a rancher from Vaughn, Montana, who intended to use it to create a giant sheep hybrid that he could sell to shooting preserves, according to prosecutors.

They said that until 2021, Schubarth illegally used tissue from the animal, which is banned in Montana, to create the species – including in 2019, when he bought a bighorn sheep’s testicles to extract semen.

His scheme was uncovered by the authorities after they learnt that he was using forged veterinary inspection certificates to move sheep in and out of Montana, prosecutors said.

On March 12, Schubarth pleaded guilty in a US District Court in Montana to two felony wildlife crimes: conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act – which prohibits the trafficking of illegally taken wildlife – and substantively violating the Lacey Act, said the Justice Department in a statement.

It was unclear exactly how the authorities discovered Schubarth’s plot. The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks declined to comment, saying its investigation was still active. In a statement on March 12, Mr Ron Howell, chief of enforcement for the department, described the case as “complex”.

“The kind of crime we uncovered here could threaten the integrity of our wildlife species in Montana,” Mr Howell said.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service, which was also investigating the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on March 14.

Under the scheme to create a giant sheep hybrid, an unidentified livestock worker returned to the US from Kyrgyzstan in 2013 with tissue from the Marco Polo argali sheep, which was not declared upon arrival, prosecutors said.

The male Marco Polo argali sheep, which are native to mountainous regions of Central Asia, can grow to weigh more than 136kg and have horns that can span more than 1.5m wide, according the Justice Department.

Argali sheep are protected internationally, as well as in the US by the Endangered Species Act. They are banned in Montana to protect native sheep from illnesses and hybridisation, according to the Justice Department.

In October 2015, Schubarth contracted a lab to create cloned embryos using tissue from the Marco Polo argali sheep, according to court documents. In November 2016, he received 165 cloned embryos, which he implanted in ewes on his sprawling 87ha ranch, according to court documents.

In May 2017, a single, pure genetic male Marco Polo argali sheep was born, and Schubarth named it Montana Mountain King, prosecutors said. The next year, Schubarth began harvesting semen from Montana Mountain King, and he soon shipped straws of his semen to buyers across the country, according to court documents.

Schubarth then worked with at least five other people across the country to try to create an even larger sheep hybrid – including in 2019 when he bought the testicles of a bighorn sheep, according to prosecutors.

In July 2020, Schubarth agreed to sell 11 offspring of the Montana Mountain King to someone in Texas for US$13,200 (S$17,700), according to court documents.

Schubarth and his co-conspirators were able to transport offspring of the Montana Mountain King across the country by using forged veterinary inspection certificates that claimed the offspring were a legally permitted species, prosecutors said.

The co-conspirators who worked with Schubarth were not identified by prosecutors or in court documents. It was unclear on March 14 whether they would also face charges.

Schubarth, who is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, could face up to five years in prison for each felony count, along with a fine of up to US$250,000 and three years of supervised release, the Justice Department said.

A lawyer for Schubarth did not immediately respond to a request for comment on March 14.

Mr Todd Kim, an assistant attorney-general at the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in a statement on March 12 that Schubarth had participated in a plot that could have harmed native animals in the US.

“This was an audacious scheme to create massive hybrid sheep species to be sold and hunted as trophies,” he said. NYTIMES