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.
Everyone makes mistakes, even experienced professionals; a good reminder for the rest of us to learn from those mistakes. The motion in State v. Stroup starts off well in its initial pages (no case law hallucinations), but is then followed by several pages of two other motions, which I don’t think the lawyer was planning to file, and which appear to have been AI-generated: It begins with the “Below is concise motion language you can drop into …” language quoted above.
Griffen Smith (Missoulian) reported on the story, and included the prosecutor’s motion to strike that filing, on the grounds that it violates a local rule (3(G)) requiring disclosure of the use of generative AI:
The document does not include a generative artificial intelligence disclosure as required. However, page 7 begins as follows: “Below is concise motion language you can drop into a ‘Motion to Admit Mental-Disease Evidence and for Related Instructions’ keyed to 45-6-204, 45-6-201, and 4614-102. Adjust headings/captions to your local practice.” Page 10 states “Below is a full motion you can paste into your pleading, then adjust names, dates, and styles to fit local practice.” These pages also include several apparent hyperlinks to “ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws,” “ppl-ai-fileupload.s3.amazonaws+1,” and others. The document includes what appears to be an attempt at a second case caption on page 12. It is not plausible on its face that any source other than generative AI would have created such language for a filed version of a brief….
There’s more in that filing, but here’s one passage:
While generative AI can be a useful tool for some purposes and may have greater application in the future, when used improperly, and without meaningful review, it can ultimately damage both the perception and the reality of the profession. One assumes that Mr. Stroup has had, or will at some point have, an opportunity to review the filing made on his behalf. What impression could a review of pgs. 12-19 leave upon a defendant who struggles with paranoia and delusional thinking? While AI could theoretically one day become a replacement for portions of staff of experienced attorneys, it is readily apparent that this day has not yet arrived.
The Missoulan article includes this response:
In a Wednesday interview, Office of Public Defender Division Administrator Brian Smith told the Missoulian the AI-generated language was inadvertently included in an unrelated filing. And he criticized the county attorney’s office for filing a “four-page diatribe about the dangers of AI” instead of working with the defense to correct her mistake.
“That’s not helping the client or the case,” Smith said, “and all you are doing is trying to throw a professional colleague under the bus.”
As I mentioned, the lawyer involved seems quite experienced, and ran for the Montana Public Service Commission in 2020 (getting nearly 48% of the vote) and for the House of Representatives in Montana’s first district in 2022 (getting over 46% of the vote) and in 2024 (getting over 44%). “Его пример другим наука,” Pushkin wrote in Eugene Onegin—”May his example profit others,” in the Falen translation.
Thanks to Matthew Monforton for the pointer.
HELENA — You probably have goals and plans for 2026—the Montana Department of Agriculture does too.
“We’re really focusing on innovative agricultural practices,” Montana Department of Agriculture director Jillien Streit said.
It’s no secret that agriculture—farming and ranching—is not easy. There are long days, planning, monitoring crops and livestock, and other challenges beyond farmers’ and ranchers’ control.
(WATCH: Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026)
Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026
“We have very low commodity prices across the board,” Streit said. “We still have very high input prices across the board, and we have really high prices when it comes to our equipment, and so, it’s a really tough year.”
But innovation, including new practices, partnerships and technology use, can help navigate some of those challenges.
“We can’t make more time and we can’t make more land, so we need to start putting together innovative practices that help us maximize what our time and land can do,” Streit said.
Practices range from using technology like autonomous tractors and virtual fencing—allowing rangers to contain and move cattle right from their phones—to regenerative farming and ranching.
“It is bringing cattle back into farming operations to be able to work with cover cropping practices to invigorate the soil for new soil health benefits,” Streit said.
The Montana Department of Agriculture is working to help producers learn, share, and collaborate on new ideas to work in their operations.
The department will share stories of practices that work from farms and ranches across the state. Also, within the next year or so, Streit said the department is hoping to roll out technology to help producers collaborate.
“(It’s) providing a communication platform where people can get together and really help each other out by utilizing each other’s assets,” she said.
While not easy, agriculture is still one of Montana’s largest industries, and Streit said innovating and sharing ideas across the state can keep it going long into the future.
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