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Montana Man Pleads Guilty to Wildlife Trafficking Charges
A 80-year-old Montana man, Arthur ‘Jack’ Schubarth, has pleaded guilty to two felony wildlife crimes – a conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and substantively violating the Lacey Act – as part of an almost decade-long effort to create giant sheep hybrids in the United States.
Schubarth, the owner and operator of Sun River Enterprises LLC – also known as Schubarth Ranch – conspired with at least five other individuals between 2013 and 2021 to create a larger hybrid species of sheep that would garner higher prices from shooting preserves.
The primary market for Schubarth’s livestock is captive hunting operations, also known as shooting preserves or game ranches. Schubarth brought parts of the largest sheep in the world, Marco Polo argali sheep (Ovis ammon polii), from Kyrgyzstan into the United States without declaring the importation.
Average males can weigh more than 300 pounds with horns that span more than five feet. Marco Polo argali are native to the high elevations of the Pamir region of Central Asia. They are protected internationally by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, domestically by the U.S. Endangered Species Act and are prohibited in the State of Montana to protect native sheep from disease and hybridization.
Schubarth sent genetic material from the argali parts to a lab to create cloned embryos. Schubarth then implanted the embryos in ewes on his ranch, resulting in a single, pure genetic male Marco Polo argali that he named ‘Montana Mountain King’ or MMK.
Court documents explain that Schubarth worked with the other unnamed coconspirators to use MMK’s semen to artificially impregnate various other species of ewes – all of which were prohibited in Montana – and create hybrid animals. Their goal was to create a larger and more valuable species of sheep to sell to captive hunting facilities, primarily in Texas.
This was an audacious scheme to create massive hybrid sheep species to be sold and hunted as trophies, said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Environment and Natural Resources Division. In pursuit of this scheme, Schubarth violated international law and the Lacey Act, both of which protect the viability and health of native populations of animals.
The kind of crime we uncovered here could threaten the integrity of our wildlife species in Montana, said Ron Howell, Chief of Enforcement for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. This was a complex case and the partnership between us and U.S Fish and Wildlife Service was critical in solving it.
The Lacey Act prohibits interstate trade in wildlife that has been taken, possessed, transported or sold in violation of federal or state law. The Lacey Act also prohibits the interstate sale of wildlife that has been falsely labeled. The Act is one of the most powerful tools the United States has to combat wildlife trafficking and prevent ecological invasion by injurious wildlife.
Key Facts
- State: Montana
- Category: Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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