Man sentenced to six months in prison for effort to create giant sheep hybrids

A Montana man was sentenced to six months in prison for being connected to an effort to create a giant sheep hybrid for captive hunting, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Monday.

Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, 81, was sentenced for committing two felony wildlife crimes as part of a nearly decade-long effort to create giant sheep hybrid animals in the United States and sell them to hunting facilities.

Schubarth is the owner of Sun River Enterprises LLC, known as Schubarth Ranch, which is a 215-acre “alternative livestock ranch” in Vaughn, Mont. There, he participated in the purchase, sale and breeding of alternative animals including mountain sheep and mountain goats, the DOJ’s release said.

He pleaded guilty to two felony charges in March. Schubarth was accused of conspiring with several others to create a larger hybrid species of sheep between 2013 and 2021 to get higher prices from shooting preserves. He was charged with conspiring to violate the Lacey Act and then violating the act.

The Lacey Act is intended to combat the illegal trafficking of plants and animals, the Department of Agriculture said.

Without declaring the import, Schubarth brought parts of the largest sheep in the world from Kyrgyzstan to Montana. The DOJ said the largest males can weigh more than 300 pounds and have horns that span more than 5 feet.

They are on an international trade in endangered species list and are prohibited in the state of Montana to protect native sheep.

The DOJ said Schubarth sent the sheep’s genetic material to a lab to clone embryos and then implanted them in ewes on his ranch. It resulted in a “single, pure genetic Male Marco Polo argali that he named ‘Montana Mountain King’ or MMK.”

Schubarth and others used that animals' genetics to artificially impregnate “various other species of ewes,” which are all banned in Montana, to “create hybrid animals.”

“Their goal was to create a larger and more valuable species of sheep to sell to hunting facilities, primarily in Texas,” the DOJ said.

The DOJ said Schubarth and others forged veterinary inspection certificates and he lied about the product he sent sheep breeders and at least two sheep from the scheme died from disease. Schubarth also illegally collected genetic material from wild-hunted Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep.

In addition to his prison sentence, Schubarth was ordered to pay a $20,000 fine to the Lacey Act Reward Fund, a $4,000 payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and a $200 special assessment.