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Freeman [soylentnews.org] writes:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/10/jail-time-for-montana-man-who-smuggled-and-cloned-an-endangered-300-pound-sheep/ [arstechnica.com]

Readers of a certain age might remember Dolly [wikipedia.org], 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.
[...]
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.
[...]
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
[...]
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.
[...]
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."
[...]
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.

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