An 81-year-old Montana man was sentenced Monday to six months in federal prison for illegally using tissue and testicles from large sheep hunted in Central Asia and the United States. Making crossbreed sheep For captive trophy hunting in Texas and Minnesota.
U.S. District Judge Brian Morris said he struggled to impose a sentence for Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, of Vaughan, Montana. He said he took into account Schwarz’s age and lack of a criminal record to impose a sentence that would deter others from attempting to “change the genetic makeup of life” on Earth.
Morris also fined Schubarth $20,000 and ordered him to pay $4,000 to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Schubarth may self-report to the prison medical facility.
“I’m going to have to work for the rest of my life to fix everything I’ve done,” Schwaas told the judge shortly before sentencing.
Schvas’s lawyer, Jason Holden, said cloning a giant Marco Polo sheep hunted in Kyrgyzstan in 2013 had ruined his client’s “life, reputation and family.”
“I think this broke him,” Holden said.
In seeking a probationary sentence, Holden argued that Schubarth was a hard worker who always cared for animals and did what no one else could do in cloning the giant sheep he named “Montana Mountain King,” or MMK.
Ministry of Justice
The animal was seized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and is being held in a licensed facility until it can be transported to a zoo, said Richard Baer, special agent in charge of the agency.
Sarah Brown, an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, asked that Schvasse be sentenced to prison, saying his illegal breeding operation is widespread, involves other states and threatens the health of other wildlife. She said the offenses were complex, involving forethought and involved a number of torts.
“Not only did Schwarz violate federal and state laws and international treaties, but he and others unlawfully conspired to conceal his actions from authorities,” Todd Kim, deputy attorney general for the Justice Department’s Division of Environment and Natural Resources, said in a statement.
Schubarth owns Sun River Enterprises LLC, a 215-acre alternative cattle ranch. The ranch buys, sells and raises “alternative livestock” such as mountain goats, mountain goats and ungulates, primarily for private hunting preserves. It’s a fee, prosecutors said. He has been in the game farming business since 1987, Schubarth said.
Schwarz pleaded guilty. In March, he and five others were charged with conspiring to use tissue from Marco Polo sheep illegally brought into the United States to clone the animals and use the clones and their descendants to create larger, more valuable crossbred sheep. For captive hunting operations.
The Marco Polo sheep is the world’s largest sheep, weighing up to 300 pounds and with curved horns up to 5 feet long, court records show.
“Ordinary way of thinking clouded by passion”
Schubarth sold MMK’s semen along with crossbreed sheep to three people in Texas, and a Minnesota resident brought 74 sheep to Schubarth’s ranch to be inseminated multiple times during the plot, court records say. Schubarth sold one direct descendant of MMK for $10,000, and other lambs with lower MMK genetics for less.
Prosecutors said the total value of the animals involved was between $250,000 and less than $550,000. Prosecutors said the hybrids were also sold to residents of Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota and West Virginia.
“Schvas’ criminal conduct is not how Montanans treat our wildlife,” Montana U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said in a statement. “In reality, his actions threatened Montana’s native wildlife species for no reason other than that he and his co-conspirators wanted to make more money.”
Schuvas paid a hunting guide $400 for the testicles of a trophy-sized Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep he harvested in Montana in October 2019, then extracted the semen and sold it, according to court records.
Prosecutors said sheep breeds not permitted in Montana were brought into the state as part of the conspiracy, including 43 sheep from Texas.
“You were so focused on avoiding rules that you got off track,” Morris said.
Holden sought reduced compensation, saying Schubarth slaughtered cross-breed sheep on his ranch and fed and cared for them until he could donate the meat to a food bank. The remaining crossbreed sheep with Marco Polo DNA on his ranch must be sent to slaughter by the end of the year, and the meat must also be donated, Morris said. Morris has offered Schubarth until December 2025 to sell its Rocky Mountain bighorn crossbreed sheep.
Schubarth will not be allowed to keep game during the three years of his probation, Morris said.
The five co-conspirators are not named in court records, but Schubart’s plea agreement requires him to fully cooperate with prosecutors and testify if asked. The incident remains under investigation, Montana wildlife officials said.
In a letter attached to the sentencing memorandum, Schwarz said he was extremely passionate about all of his projects, including his “Sheep Project,” and that he was ashamed of his actions.
“I let my passion cloud my normal way of thinking and looked into the gray areas of the law to make the best sheep I could for this sheep industry,” he wrote. “My family has never been broke, but now we are.”
