136
submitted 7 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

A Montana rancher illegally used tissue and testicles from wild sheep killed by hunters in central Asia and the U.S. to breed “giant” hybrid sheep for sale to private hunting preserves in Texas, according to court documents and federal prosecutors.

Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, 80, of Vaughn, Montana pleaded guilty to felony charges of wildlife trafficking and conspiracy to traffic wildlife during an appearance Tuesday before a federal judge in Great Falls. Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Court documents describe a yearslong conspiracy, beginning in 2013, in which Schubarth and at least five other people sought to create “giant sheep hybrids” by cross-breeding different species. Their goal was to garner high prices from hunting preserves where people shoot captive trophy game animals for a fee.

Using biological tissue obtained from a hunter who killed a wild sheep in Kyrgyzstan belonging to the world’s largest species of the animals — Marco Polo argali sheep — Schubarth procured cloned embryos of the animal from a lab, according to court documents.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] MareOfNights@discuss.tchncs.de 44 points 7 months ago

I don't really understand why that is illegal considering that it's pretty similar to what the meat industry does. Maybe there are some laws to protect against invasive species, but he didn't want to free them. Maybe dealing with poachers? Maybe he just needed a license?

[-] JoBo@feddit.uk 33 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

CITES is the international treaty.

The offspring of wild animals are still very wild, even when crossbred with a domesticated breed. If they wanted to do it, they needed to get a licence to do it. That they did not get a licence suggests they knew they would not be granted one. Because breeding fancy animals for rich people to shoot is not a good justification.

[-] piecat@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago

Oh so being rich enough to hire legal counsel to get you the permit makes you qualified? Got it

[-] JoBo@feddit.uk 9 points 7 months ago

Licensed breeders and keepers of captive wild animals are certainly wealthier than yer average Joe. But if you're trying to argue that these offenders are being punished for their poverty, you really, really ought to read the article first.

[-] JimboDHimbo@lemmy.ca 5 points 7 months ago

Because breeding fancy animals for rich people to shoot is not a good justification.

I was like "who cares, cool science stuff. Free that man." Until you said the above.

[-] INeedMana@lemmy.world 22 points 7 months ago

Captive animal facilities where game species can be raised and hunted were banned in Montana under a 2000 ballot initiative

I think they took too big swig from twistonium bottle. Instead of "guy was organizing an illegal thing and it turned out he jumped through quite a few hoops to get to that point", they made it sound like the breeding part was bad

[-] MareOfNights@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 7 months ago

Ah, ok.

On a separate note: Cloning giant sheep from poached ones sounds kinda like a supervillain and I now want to clone my own army of poached animals.

[-] INeedMana@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago

Cloning giant sheep from poached ones sounds kinda like a supervillain and I now want to clone my own army of poached animals

Oh yeah, I'm impressed that it works so well that he only needed like pieces from one killed animal to succeed

[-] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 4 points 7 months ago

Part of it is also importing animal tissue (and sperm) without the proper paperwork and approval.

That's a BIG no-no.

[-] jaybone@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

Yeah I seem to remember some kind of global illness thing recently. Probably best to avoid that happening again.

[-] Ajen@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 months ago

The breeding part is what violated state, federal, and international law.

[-] INeedMana@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

The breeding itself? Because these are wild? Or do you need some license to breed animals?

[-] Ajen@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago

You didn't read the article, did you?

[-] INeedMana@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

I did. I don't get how the creation of the breed was the illegal part and not the creating "shooting range"

[-] Ajen@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

From the article:

Male argali sheep can top 300 pounds with horns up to 5 feet long, according to officials, making them prized among some hunters. They are protected under international convention as a threatened species and outlawed for import into Montana to protect native sheep from disease and hybridization.

It doesn't matter that they wanted to shoot the hybrids. They could have been making a petting zoo and it would have still been illegal.

[-] iiGxC@slrpnk.net 3 points 7 months ago

Both this and the meat industry should be illegal 🤷

this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2024
136 points (95.3% liked)

News

23305 readers
3618 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS