Montana Rancher Bred Giant, Cloned Franken-Sheep for Hunting

Talk about ewe-genics. A Montana man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to felony wildlife crimes—including a nearly decade-long conspiracy to breed “giant sheep hybrids” with the goal of hunting them for sport. He also cloned the animals to breed the creatures at his ranch.

Federal authorities charged 80-year-old Arthur “Jack” Schubarth of Vaughn, Montana with crimes related to purchasing, breeding, and selling “alternative livestock” between 2013 and 2021, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release. Schubarth and “at least five other individuals” bred the hybrid species to sell them at hunting preserves.

“This was an audacious scheme to create massive hybrid sheep species to be sold and hunted as trophies,” Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in a statement. He added that Schubarth “violated international law and the Lacey Act, both of which protect the viability and health of native populations of animals.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.