Jail time for Montana man who smuggled and cloned an endangered 300-pound sheep

Readers of a certain age might remember Dolly, a Finn-Dorset sheep born in 1996 to three mothers and some proud Scottish scientists. Dolly generated global headlines just by being alive, as she was the first mammal to be cloned using DNA taken from body (somatic) cells.

In this form of cloning, a somatic cell provides the cloned animal's complete DNA, which is then injected into an unfertilized egg cell that has had its existing genetic material removed. Zap the egg with a bit of current, implant it into the womb of a surrogate mother, wait a few months, and bam—out pops Dolly.

The process proved that the magic of embryonic development wasn't hidden only in eggs and sperm; even somatic cells from mature animals were capable of reproducing the whole creature and of generating any cell needed by the developing embryo.

Dolly was more than a science experiment, though; she helped kickstart an entire commercial industry in animal cloning. Once the technology made it possible, what would people want to clone? Their pets, for one, but also high-value animals—especially those creatures that were both rare and illegal to possess.

All of that explains how an octogenarian rancher named Arthur Schubarth yesterday found himself sentenced to six months in federal prison for cloning a sheep.

Clone wars

Just like computing, cloning technology has come a long way since 1996. And just like computing, cloning has become a service. You no longer need a lab; today, you can just ship cells off to a company, have them create cloned embryos and store the embryos in a freezer, and then—at a time of your choosing—have the embryos show up in your mailbox for local implantation into a surrogate animal mother.

Arthur Schubarth ran a 215-acre Montana game farm called Sun River Enterprises that specialized in raising mountain sheep and goats. The animals were often sold to game ranches where hunters would track and kill them for sport.

Buyers wanted "trophy" animals, and in the world of big-game sheep hunting—which I have just learned is a thing—the Mountain Polo argali (ovis ammon polii) is the biggest and gamiest. Argali sheep can grow to 300 pounds, making them the largest sheep in the world, and they have the largest horns of any wild sheep.

If you want to complete an "Ovis World Slam," you need to embark on a global sheep-slaughtering tour and kill at least 12 wild varieties. Given their size, argali sheep are one of the most sought, but they live largely in the mountainous regions of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

Schubarth saw a financial opportunity if he could bring argali sheep to the US to produce larger animals for domestic hunters, but the sheep are listed in the US Endangered Species Act and the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Importing an argali would require CITES paperwork from the host country and Fish and Wildlife permission from the US government.

Schubarth ignored these rules and instead sent his son to Kyrgyzstan on a hunting trip in 2012. The son killed an argali and brought parts of it back in his luggage without declaring them, but they were unsuitable for cloning. So it was back to Kyrgyzstan in 2013, where the son killed another argali and again brought its body parts home without alerting US or Montana authorities.

This time, the argali material looked good, so Schubarth signed a "cell storage agreement" with an unnamed cloning firm in January 2013 and shipped the somatic cells off to storage. It took until 2015, perhaps for financial reasons, before Schubarth signed an "Ovine Cloning Contract" with the same firm, which required a $4,200 deposit.

In 2016, Schubarth received 165 cloned argali embryos at his Montana ranch, and in 2017, the first pure Marco Polo argali sheep was born to him. Schubarth named it "Montana Mountain King."

Enlarge / "Montana Mountain King," the cloned sheep, in December 2023.
US DOJ

Soon, Schubarth was up to his eyeballs in sheep semen (metaphorically, though perhaps literally as well). He was harvesting semen from Montana Mountain King in order to inseminate local ewes. He was also shipping "straws" of semen to buyers in Texas. And he was letting ranchers from around the country haul their own sheep to Montana, where Schubarth inseminated them and sent them back home. The goal was to use Schubarth's "pure" argali to create even larger "hybrid" sheep for hunting.

All of this shipping required copious falsification of documents, making clear that Schubarth knew exactly how illegal his little operation was. He had even petitioned the state of Montana for special permission to keep argali sheep; when the state said no, Schubarth just did it anyway.

All of this cloning and impregnating finally came to the attention of the feds, who charged Schubarth in early 2024 with animal trafficking and conspiracy. He pled guilty and "exhibited remorse and has been compliant" ever since, said the government. He allowed officials onto his ranch to do genetic testing and to quarantine or remove animals as necessary, and Schubarth's beloved Montana Mountain King was confiscated. The government did end up killing some of the animals on the ranch, though it notes that "the meat from those animals has been donated to Montana families in need."

Yesterday, Schubarth was sentenced to six months in prison along with a $20,000 fine and a $4,000 payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.