Sometimes you don’t condone the crime but you can’t help but admire the criminal. So it was last week when a Montana rancher was sentenced for cloning a giant sheep.
The goal was to create the largest sheep on earth. And though the perpetrator has been stopped eight years into his scheme, the sheep’s DNA may already be out-of-hand.
It began in 2013, when then 73 year-old Arthur Schubarth dispatched his son on a hunting expedition to the mountains of Kyrgyzstan. His mission? To kill a Marco Polo argali sheep.
The world’s largest sheep, the argali had been on the men’s radar for some time. The Schubarths ran a breeding ranch that supplied stock to hunting reserves (mainly in Texas), and they knew this was an industry where bigger meant better.
The Marco Polo argali is the largest species of sheep on the planet. It can grow to 130 kg in weight and its horns can span 1.9 m in width.
Schubarth Jr succeeded in his mission, returning to the United States with parts of the animal concealed in his suitcase. These were then shipped off to a commercial cloning facility.
Such facilities are legal in the United States and Australia, although banned in Europe. They are mostly used to reproduce breeding stock, as well as by individuals unreasonably attached to their pets.
After a failed attempt at cloning and a second trip to Kyrgyzstan for fresh parts, the operation finally succeeded. The Schubarths received their argali embryos from the clone labs, implanted them into surrogate sheep mothers, and with that, Montana Mountain King, as they named their creation, was born.
Two years later and the Mountain King’s semen was being “harvested” and shipped to breeders across the country (mainly in Texas). The Schubarths artificially inseminated sheep on their own ranch too, no doubt dreaming of a liger-like hybrid that would make their stock the most famous in the trophy-hunting world.
Alas, Schubarth’s activities eventually drew too much attention, and in March he was convicted of conspiracy. Count one, as stated in sentencing documents: “Schubarth’s agreement with at least five other co-conspirators to create and sell a larger, more valuable species of sheep.”
He also violated wildlife trafficking laws. The Montana rancher was sentenced to six months in federal.
Though Schubarth disavowed his activities before the court, his dream lives on in the Mountain King’s DNA and the anonymous breeders (mainly in Texas) ready to become the sheep world’s answer to the infamous Tiger King.
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