A farmer faces prison after secretly buying parts of the world’s largest sheep to illegally breed livestock he could sell for up to $10,000, a Montana Court heard.
Prosecutors claimed Arthur ‘Jack’ Schubarth, 80, bought parts of a protected ‘mutant’ species, the Marco Polo argali sheep from Kyrgyzstan, to breed an even bigger sheep for sale to private shooting reserves.
He illegally used tissue and testicles from the wild sheep killed by hunters in Central Asia in a conspiracy with at least five others between 2013 and 2021, prosecutors said.
Schubarth pleaded guilty to charges of wildlife trafficking and conspiracy to traffic wildlife at a court in Great Falls, Montana, on Tuesday, the Telegraph reported.
His 215-acre ranch in Vaughn specialises in the purchase, sale and breeding of ‘alternative livestock’ like mountain sheep, mountain goats and other ungulates, according to prosecutors.
He planned to sell the hybrid sheep species to ranges where people pay to hunt captive trophy animals.
Marco Polo males, native to the mountains of the Pamir Mountains of Central Asia, can weigh more than 22 stone with a horn span of more than five feet.
Donald Trump Jr sparked condemnation in 2019 when he went hunting for the species in Mongolia, where the near-threatened species of sheep is seen as a national treasure.
As well as being an international protected species, Marco Polo sheep are banned in Montana to protect native sheep from disease and hybridisation.
But Schubarth threatened ‘the integrity of our wildlife species in Montana’ by bringing the argali sheep parts into the state in the hopes of breeding a massive hybrid.
‘This was an audacious scheme to create massive hybrid sheep species to be sold and hunted as trophies’, according to assistant attorney general Todd Kim.
‘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.’
The Act prohibits the trade in wildlife that has been taken, possessed, transported or sold in violation of federal or state law.
Schubarth and his conspirators forged veterinary inspection certificates andfalsely claimed the sheep were legally permitted species so they could traffic the banned sheep in an out of Montana, the court heard.
He sent the banned sheep’s genetic material to a lab to create cloned embryos, which he implanted into his own ewes, prosecutors said.
This produced one pure genetic male Marco Polo of massive size, which he called ‘Montana Mountain King’, the court heard.
It’s estimated the hybrid sheep was more than 125cm tall and weighed more than 145kg, bigger than the 120cm and 140kg of a Marco Polo.
By comparison, the common British Suffolk species weighs only 125kg and stands 80cm tall.
Schubarth schemed with others to use the Montana Mountain King’s semen to artificially impregnate other species of use to create hybrid sheep, court documents state.
He sold the Montana Mountain King’s semen directly to sheep breeders in other states, prosecutors said.
The farmer is claimed to have agreed to sell one offspring to two people in Texas for $10,000, and reportedly shot one of the sheep using a laser-sighted rifle.
In addition to this, Schubarth illegally bought genetic material from a Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep to raffic to buyers in other states.
The largest wild sheep in North America, it stands roughly three feet tall and can weigh over 21 stone.
Schubarth paid $400 to a hunter for the testicles of one that had been shot in Montana, to breed more of the species and crossbreed with the argali sheep.
Montana’s head of state wildlife enforcement warned of the impact Schubert’s actions could have.
Ron Howell said: ‘The kind of crime we uncovered here could threaten the integrity of our wildlife species in Montana.’
Schubarth faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.
His sentencing is scheduled for July 11.
On a Facebook page under his name and featuring numerous photos of livestock, Schubarth wrote two days ago: ‘We have not been able to sell sheep for about three years now.
‘First time in 80 plus years I’m broke.’
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