Turns out you are never too old to clone…sheep! An 81-year-old Montana man, Arthur "Jack" Schubarth of Vaughn, Montana, was recently sentenced for illegally cloning sheep. Authorities said he illegally used both sheep tissue and testicles from very large sheep, called the Marco Polo sheep species, found in the US and Asia. His target market included hunting facilities that seek hunters for captive trophy hunting in the states of Minnesota and Texas.

The now-convicted Schubarth pled guilty to two felony wildlife crimes, including conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act, which “prohibits the importation, exportation, transportation, sale, receipt, acquisition, or purchase of any fish or wildlife or plant taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of any law, treaty, or regulation of the United States or any Indian tribal law, or foreign law.”

These giant sheep are protected by agencies such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Furthermore, the Marco Polo sheep are prohibited in the State of Montana in order to protect native US sheep from disease and hybridization. The Lacey Act further prohibits the interstate sale of wildlife that has been falsely labeled. The Act is, as noted in court documents, “one of the most powerful tools the United States has to combat wildlife trafficking and prevent ecological invasion by injurious wildlife.”

Schubarth is the owner and operator of the 215-acre Schubarth Ranch, which offers alternative livestock. The ranch’s parent company is Sun River Enterprises LLC, located in Vaughn, Montana. Their animals include mountain goats, mountain sheep, and other animals.

Court documents state that Schubarth did not act alone in his cloning scheme and that between 2013 and 2021 he worked with five others. Their goal, noted the court documents, was to clone a larger species of sheep that hunters would eagerly seek and also to make more money for the unique giant sheep. Schubarth secretly brought numerous parts of some of the largest sheep in the world, the Marco Polo, back to the US after visiting their natural habitats.

The size of these world’s largest sheep is massive, with average males weighing over 300 pounds. Their horn span can be over five feet.

Court documents say that Schubarth secretly sent his large sheep parts to a lab that would clone embryos. Once the embryos were ready, court documents add, he implanted them in some ewes on his ranch in Montana. His cloning resulted in a new genetic giant sheep, which he named the Montana Mountain King (MMK).

In another ongoing scheme, as reported in court documents, Schubarth worked with co-conspirators to use the new sheep’s semen to impregnate other types of ewes. This would result in hybrid animals, which would become much more expensive than other types of sheep.

The intricate scheme included forged veterinary inspection certificates that claimed the secretly cloned and hybrid sheep were a legally permitted species. In addition, Schubarth and his cohorts sold the semen to sheep breeders in numerous states.

“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.”

Currently, the one-of-a-kind cloned giant sheep, confiscated by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, is waiting to be sent to an accredited zoo, noted special agent with the Wildlife Service Richard Bare.

When sentencing the eighty-one-year-old for wildlife trafficking charges, U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris said that he “struggled” to arrive at a sentence for the defendant. Judge Morris said he tried to balance Mr. Schubarth’s lack of a criminal record with his age, and yet come up with a sentence that would stop anyone else from attempting to “change the genetic makeup” of living creatures.

Mr. Schubarth was fined $20,000 and was told he must pay $4,000 to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

In court, Schubarth's attorney disagreed with the sentence and said that his octogenarian client was devastated because it “ruined” his "life, reputation and family." Instead, the attorney argued, Mr. Vaughn should serve a probationary sentence.

After being sentenced, Mr. Schubarth said, “I will have to work the rest of my life to repair everything I’ve done.”