Montana
Montana man pleads guilty to wildlife trafficking charges in scheme to clone sheep
(CNN) — Over the course of nearly a decade, a Montana ranch owner and at least five other people conspired to clone sheep and create a larger hybrid species of what is already considered the world’s largest sheep species for financial gain, according to federal prosecutors.
Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, 80, of Vaughn, Montana, pleaded guilty to felony charges related to trafficking sheep parts from Asia into the United States – a violation of the Lacey Act – with an aim of selling the species to captive hunting facilities primarily in Texas, according to a news release from the US Department of Justice.
The Lacey Act prohibits “trafficking of illegally taken wildlife, fish or plants,” according to the US Department of Agriculture.
Schubarth faces a maximum of five years in prison for each of the two felony counts and up to a $250,000 fine. CNN has contacted an attorney listed for Schubarth for comment.
Between 2013 and 2021, Schubarth and others set out to create a larger hybrid species of the Marco Polo argali sheep with trafficked sheep parts from Kyrgyzstan to garner higher prices from shooting preserves, according to the Justice Department.
The sheep species, often trophy hunted for its size and long spiraling horns, is listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act, according to court documents.
Marco Polo argali sheep, which can weigh more than 300 pounds and have horns spanning more than 5 feet, are banned in Montana “to protect native sheep from disease and hybridization,” according to the Justice Department.
Schubarth, who owned a 215-acre game farm where mountain sheep, mountain goats and other hoofed mammals were bought, sold, and bred, is the only person named in the court documents.
The five others involved are described in the documents as residents of Montana, Texas and Minnesota who were involved in alternative livestock husbandry and commercial livestock sales, according to court documents.
Schubarth is accused of conspiring to bring parts of the internationally and domestically protected Marco Polo argali sheep, which are native to Central Asia’s Pamir Mountains region, into the US without declaring the parts, court documents state. Schubarth is accused of engaging a third party to create a cloned argali sheep from the trafficked parts.
Schubarth’s farm – Sun River Enterprises, also known as Schubarth Ranch – mainly marketed and sold live animals and genetic material, like semen, to shooting preserves, court documents state.
He and co-conspirators allegedly performed artificial insemination and other types of artificial breeding to “create larger and more valuable lines of argali sheep,” according to the documents.
“The kind of crime we uncovered here could threaten the integrity of our wildlife species in Montana,” Ron Howell, chief of enforcement for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said in a statement.
In January 2013, the co-conspirator from Montana entered the US with undeclared biological tissue from a Marco Polo argali sheep that had been hunted in Kyrgyzstan, according to court documents.
Days later, Schubarth entered a cell storage agreement with a company to store and preserve the tissue from a male sheep named Rocky, according to the documents, which add that Schubarth entered an ovine cloning contract in October 2015 to have an unspecified number of sheep cloned from the tissue.
He received 165 cloned Marco Polo embryos in November 2016 at his ranch, the documents state. In May 2017, a pure male Marco Polo argali sheep was born from the embryos, and Schubarth named it Montana Mountain King.
In 2018, authorities say Schubarth began harvesting semen from Montana Mountain King to artificially inseminate ewes in hopes of creating hybrid offspring.
Using Montana Mountain King’s semen, Schubarth and co-conspirators artificially inseminated female sheep species that are also banned in Montana in an attempt to create hybrid animals, the Justice Department said.
Schubarth and others moved the illegal sheep into and out of Montana by forging veterinary inspection certificates, according to court documents.
Schubarth also violated Montana law by obtaining genetic material from the state’s Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, which are the largest native wild sheep species in North America, according to the court document. Montana prohibits game animal parts being sold there and also “prohibits the use of Montana game animals on alternative livestock ranches,” according to the Justice Department.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service and Montana’s Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks are investigating the case. Schubarth is set to be sentenced on July 11.
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A band of moderate snow has formed from the Cut Bank area, extending southeast across Chouteau, Fergus, and Judith Basin Counties. Be alert for low visibility and slick road conditions. Icy conditions continue in Lewis & Clark and Broadwater counties, where snow fell on top of ice after some freezing rain overnight. Up to a 1/4″ of ice has been reported on cars and sidewalks. Freezing rain may mix in again this morning as milder air begins to move back in.
Today’s Forecast:
Frigid Friday, several inches of snowfall in parts of the area-Friday, December 12
It will be a frigid today, with high temperatures in the 0s and lower 10s across central and eastern Montana, and mid to upper 30s in Helena.
The snow band will continue throughout the day, bringing several inches of snow to areas east of I-15. The band of snow will gradually push east tonight, impacting Blaine, Phillips, and Valley counties overnight. Snow showers taper off by Saturday morning.
MTN News
MTN News
Expect difficult driving conditions through Saturday morning, especially east of I-15 and into the mountains.
Arctic air slowly retreats north on Saturday. Temperatures start off in the -10s to near 0 on the Hi-Line and in the 0s for central Montana, then climb to the 0s and 10s for the Hi-Line and 10s to 20s in central Montana by Saturday evening.
Meanwhile, it will be a pleasant weekend in Helena with temperatures in the low 40s. A gusty breeze develops on Sunday, as temperatures warm nicely into the low to mid 40s in central Montana and into the 30s in northeast Montana.
Looking ahead to next week, mild and windy conditions kick off the workweek, followed by active weather returning midweek.
MTN News MTN News
MTN News
Warm temperatures and an “atmospheric river” of precipitation that flowed into northwestern Montana this week have generated a state of emergency in Montana’s northwesternmost county, Lincoln, as local waterways run unseasonably high.
Around 12 p.m. Wednesday, the National Weather Service started issuing flooding watches as area snowpack sites reported 24-hour precipitation totals that were approaching record levels. NWS meteorologist Dan Borsum told Montana Free Press Thursday that the “rain-on-snow” nature of the recent precipitation has led to widespread flooding.
Borsum called the weather pattern “unusual” for mid-December, instead likening it to a warm April.
Zach Sherbo, the public health manager for the Lincoln County Health Department, said in a Thursday afternoon phone call that additional precipitation is expected through Thursday evening, so rivers could continue rising into Friday.
The Lincoln County communities of Libby and Troy have been hit the hardest by the deluge, which prompted emergency services personnel to issue a state of emergency Thursday afternoon. Residents are cautioned against unnecessary travel and those served by the Libby city water supply are under a boil-water order as a precaution in the event of water supply contamination. School has also been canceled for students in Libby and Troy, Sherbo said.
The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department has identified a handful of bridges that have been compromised or are washed out as a result of flooding. It suggests residents looking for information on road closures and bridge conditions review an interactive map that is available online and linked in a press release posted to the Lincoln County Health Department’s Facebook page.
“It’s going to take a long time to recoup from this, just structurally, just with the bridges we’ve lost already and the condition that they’re in and going toward,” Sherbo said. “It’s a pretty big combined local effort right now.”
Justun Juelfs, the Kalispell-area maintenance chief with the Montana Department of Transportation said three stretches of state-managed roadways were closed or under monitoring status as of 4 p.m. Thursday.
An approximately 80-foot section of the Farm to Market Road south of Libby has washed out as Libby Creek carved a new channel. MDT is also monitoring erosion that is occurring along a U.S. Highway 2 bridge southeast of Libby and along a section of Highway 56 near Bull Lake. Juelfs encouraged motorists to review MDT’s road conditions report for up-to-date information on impacts to state highways.
The Army Corps of Engineers is assisting with sandbag-filling and distributing efforts and the Red Cross has set up a shelter for those in need at the Assembly of God Church in Libby, according to Sherbo.
The Montana Disaster and Emergency Services agency is also lending a hand with the flood response. In an email to MTFP, Anette Ordahl with DES wrote that a district field officer and a recovery coordinator are on the ground in Libby to offer assistance.
In a Thursday afternoon press release, Gov. Greg Gianforte noted that Sanders and Flathead counties have also recognized the flooding by issuing emergency or disaster declarations. Up to four inches of additional rainfall are expected across western and south-central Montana, according to a disaster declaration Gianforte’s office included in a 3 p.m. press release.
The National Weather Service reported Thursday morning that the Bear Mountain snowpack monitoring site, located just across the border in Idaho, received 6.5 inches of precipitation as of this morning, making it the third-wettest 24-hour period for the site in its 44-year monitoring history. The six-day precipitation total for Dec. 6-11 is 13 inches.
Borsum, with the National Weather Service, said the recent, unseasonable warm spell in western Montana combined with the “super strong” atmospheric river to melt early season snowpack and drive flooding. A similar rain-on-snow event in early June of 2022 led to widespread flooding in parts of south-central Montana that required extensive repairs to roadways and bridges.
Thursday, the Yaak River near Troy surpassed its official flood stage, running at more than 7,500 cubic feet per second. Its usual volume for this time of the year is about 200 cfs.
The Fisher River near Libby was also nearing flood stage. As of Thursday afternoon, it was running at nearly 4,000 cfs, more than 20 times its usual volume for mid-December.
Zeke Lloyd and Jacob Olness contributed to this reporting.
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