Marco Polo Sheep Cloned?

[huntresss]

I'm sorry if this has already been discussed, but I couldn't find it in a search...but has anyone elae seen this? Apparently an 80 year old man in Montana had cloned a Marco Polo sheep from testicles brought back from Kyrgyzstan. He then bred the Marco Polo to our native Bighorn sheep to produce a sort of super trophy exotic to be hunted on ranches in Texas. It sounded too bizarre to be true, but I did some digging and found that he had just been sentenced to jail time as of today. Not sure where I stand on the issue because even the allegations seem so nebulous. But it got me to wondering, if a person were to go on a Marco Polo hunt and bring a trophy home, would it then be legal to clone the animal? And how much does it cost to do so? Anybody looking to invest in a new business in Oklahoma? (just kidding about the last part...well, maybe).
Here's a link to a USA Today article on the subject:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/10/01/montana-rancher-sentenced-giant-sheep-hybrid-hunting/75463964007/

[AntlerCollector]

I’d love to know where these sheep are sold for $350

[60 Deluxe]

As much as I dislike the industry of manipulating genetics to create super trophies for hunting, I see the real problem here as the state saying that they alone get to determine the use of wildlife. The problem really isn't that a hybrid was cloned but that the man didn't let the control freaks at the state level have their say in the matter.

[Bill]

He was convicted of violating the Lacey Act which is federal, not state. I’ve never heard of high fence ranches to shoot exotics here.

Schubarth was sentenced Monday for committing two felonies, conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and substantively violating the Lacey Act, according to the Justice Department. The Lacey Act is a law that bans the trafficking of illegally taken wildlife, fish and plants.

[BTLowry]

Can brew up a virus and shut down the country but don't dare mess with any sheep genetics

[Gumbo Man]

Can brew up a virus and shut down the country but don't dare mess with any sheep genetics

Or come into the country illegally and get a free pass.

[Bisch]

Thompson Temple has had some hybrid bighorn sheep for a while. Idk if they got them from this guy or not????

Bisch

[60 Deluxe]

He was convicted of violating the Lacey Act which is federal, not state. I’ve never heard of high fence ranches to shoot exotics here.

Schubarth was sentenced Monday for committing two felonies, conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and substantively violating the Lacey Act, according to the Justice Department. The Lacey Act is a law that bans the trafficking of illegally taken wildlife, fish and plants.

I consider federal to be the state in the sense that it is a governing body.

[Texans42]

He was convicted of violating the Lacey Act which is federal, not state. I’ve never heard of high fence ranches to shoot exotics here.

Schubarth was sentenced Monday for committing two felonies, conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and substantively violating the Lacey Act, according to the Justice Department. The Lacey Act is a law that bans the trafficking of illegally taken wildlife, fish and plants.

reason 9k that Lacey act should be gutted. All he did was clone a legally harvested sheep. No different than a domestic sheep.

this should be an Agriculture oversight, it is not a Wildlife issue

we clone and AI horses, sheep, cow, dogs, even African animal etc all the time. Horses are not native to US, nor are domestic dogs, nor cattle

[Dusty Britches]

^^^ That is very cryptic and all over the place.

[huntresss]

I’d love to know where these sheep are sold for $350

I read in other articles that he was selling the offspring for $10,000. I think somebody's math is off.

[huntresss]

Can brew up a virus and shut down the country but don't dare mess with any sheep genetics

That's right!

My personal belief is that this is just anither piece in the "destroy all forms of self-sustenance so people have to rely on the govt. for food" puzzle. (Along with CWD, poisoning feral swine, forbidding hunting feral cattle in NM, etc.)

[GarGuy]

He didn't pay the right folks and they crushed him with the lacey act. This has happened hundreds if times. Lives destroyed on a made up crime.

If you have ever dove hunted, duck hunted , alligator hunted, or traveled out of state and killed a trophy... you have committed multiple felonies according to the lacey act.. just a matter of whether big brother decides to hurt you.

A federal magistrate told me "the lacey act does nothing to help with folks that are a danger to society but is great to deal with folks we are mad at"

[donpablo]

I'd read about this a while back. What I'd like to know is if he kept his stock locked up behind a fence. As long as he wasn't releasing them to mess up the genetics of the pure bighorns, who cares? I personally don't think we should be cloning animals but if it's legal to clone one, why not the other?

Speaking of, who else is secretly hoping we get to go hunting wooly mammoths in 10 years?

[wytex]

You all are really ok with what he did, sorry but no way: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/monta...-effort-create

According to court documents, Schubarth conspired with at least five other individuals between 2013 and 2021 to create a larger hybrid species of sheep that would garner higher prices from shooting preserves. Schubarth brought parts of the largest sheep in the world, Marco Polo argali sheep (Ovis ammon polii), from Kyrgyzstan into the United States without declaring the importation. Average males can weigh more than 300 pounds with horns that span more than five feet. Marco Polo argali are native to the high elevations of the Pamir region of Central Asia. They are protected internationally by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, domestically by the U.S. Endangered Species Act and are prohibited in the State of Montana to protect native sheep from disease and hybridization.

Schubarth sent genetic material from the argali parts to a lab to create cloned embryos. Schubarth then implanted the embryos in ewes on his ranch, resulting in a single, pure genetic male Marco Polo argali that he named “Montana Mountain King” or MMK.

Court documents explain that Schubarth worked with the other unnamed coconspirators to use MMK’s semen to artificially impregnate various other species of ewes – all of which were prohibited in Montana – and create hybrid animals. Their goal was to create a larger and more valuable species of sheep to sell to captive hunting facilities, primarily in Texas.

To move the prohibited sheep into and out of Montana, Schubarth and others forged veterinary inspection certificates, falsely claiming that the sheep were legally permitted species. On occasion, Schubarth sold MMK semen directly to sheep breeders in other states.

Court documents also describe how Schubarth illegally obtained genetic material from wild-hunted Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in Montana. Schubarth purchased parts of these wild-hunted sheep in violation of Montana law, which prohibits the sale of game animal parts within the state and prohibits the use of Montana game animals on alternative livestock ranches. Schubarth transported and sold the bighorn parts in interstate commerce.

“This was an audacious scheme to create massive hybrid sheep species to be sold and hunted as trophies,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). “In pursuit of this scheme, Schubarth violated international law and the Lacey Act, both of which protect the viability and health of native populations of animals.”