Montana man to be sentenced for creating then cloning giant hybrid sheep

A Montana man is set to be sentenced Monday, Sept. 30, for illegally creating hybrid sheep for captive trophy hunting. Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, 81, pleaded guilty in March to felony charges of wildlife trafficking and conspiracy to traffic wildlife.

Authorities said he used tissue and testicles from large, endangered sheep, the Marco Polo sheep, hunted in parts of Asia, to create the hybrids, which he dubbed the “Montana Mountain King,” then successfully cloned it.

Each charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, however, court records show prosecutors are not seeking prison time. Furthermore, the sentencing memorandum congratulates Schubarth on doing “something else no one else could, or has ever done.”

“On a ranch, in a barn in Montana, he created Montana Mountain King,” the memo said. “MMK is an extraordinary animal, born of science, and from a man who, if he could re-write history, would have left the challenge of cloning a Marco Polo only to the imagination of Michael Crichton.”

Michael Crichton wrote “Jurassic Park.”

Schubarth owns a ranch that buys, sells and breeds “alternative livestock” such as mountain sheep and mountain goats – mostly for private hunting preserves where people shoot captive trophy game animals for a fee. Charging documents showed Schubarth had reached an agreement to sell one of his Montana Mountain Kings to two people in Texas for $10,000.

His lawyer is asking for a one-year probationary sentence, saying breeding the cloned sheep already ruined Schubarth’s “life, reputation and family.”