What do you think happened in a story with this headline, “Montana Man Pleads Guilty to Creating Massive Franken-Sheep With Cloned Animal Parts”? Oooh, Franken-Sheep and animal parts…were they importing chopped up bits of animal corpses and stitching them together to make monster sheep? The story continues:
An 80-year-old man in Montana pleaded guilty Tuesday to two felony wildlife crimes involving his plan to let paying customers hunt sheep on private ranches. But these weren’t just any old sheep. They were “massive hybrid sheep” created by illegally importing animal parts from central Asia, cloning the sheep, and then breeding an enormous hybrid species.
The “animal parts” are whole, intact embryos of Marco Polo sheep, a very large species, and then raising them to adulthood. He was basically smuggling in embryonic sheep, nothing particularly radical scientifically.
Once Schubart had smuggled his sheep parts into the U.S., he sent them to an unnamed lab which created 165 cloned embryos, according to the DOJ.
“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,” federal authorities wrote in a press release.
Then they collected semen from the adult sheep, and crossed them to domestic sheep, again, not at all radical scientifically. Somebody tried to jazz up the story with talk of animal parts and Franken-sheep, when it’s really a story about illegally importing an endangered species from its native range, and hybridizing them to produce a stock for profit. The story is bad enough without stuffing it full of misleading pseudoscience.
At least the guy behind the scheme got his comeuppance.
Schubart pleaded guilty to violating the Lacey Act, and conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act, which makes it a crime to acquire, transport or sell wildlife in contravention of federal law.
“This was an audacious scheme to create massive hybrid sheep species to be sold and hunted as trophies,” assistant Attorney General Todd Kim from the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division said in a press release.
“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,” Kim continued.
Yeah, and that’s the extra ugly twist here. They weren’t doing this to help the species — they were raising great big sheep on ranches so big game hunters could pay big money to shoot a large animal. On a farm. You know, real sportsman-like.
Isn’t this the same as IVF that has the right in such a titter.
You missed the local angle:
There could be illicit hybrid sheep roaming the streets of Morris at night.
I had never heard of Marco Polo sheep before.
It is a wild species in the same genus as domestic sheep and they can cross breed.
They are impressive looking and look more like a North American mountain sheep than a domestic sheep.
The fake hunt is sort of pointless and ugly as PZ points out.
How hard is it to shoot a hand raised fenced animal anyway?
I don’t get it.
Agree with Raven. In at least some cases, you could probably “hunt” them with a hammer. I used to raise Jacob sheep which is a domestic breed of sheep but very spectacular looking (look them up, they are cool). Used to get people wanting them for these canned hunts. I always wondered if they left the blue ear tags I put on the sheep right on the trophy head they hung on their wall. If not, that hole where the ear tag used to be would be mighty suspicious, I would think.
@3 raven :
I don’t either realy but apparently some pathetic douches think it makes them somehow impressive and “winners” and
luminas<//strike> “alphas” to deliberatekly go out and murder animakls that pose them and others sod all threat Becoz.. something, something, macho bullshit. Including among and, of all fucken things, a sheep for fucks sake!FFS typos. Fix for clarity :
Buioled down to essence, they are insecure, horrib;e people who think killing something becoz they can kill it easily makes them ..better .. somehow.
Lumina = brightest star in a constellation. Not always identical with the one designated Alpha ___ (Constellation name.)
Spoiler : Quite the reverse. It revelas just how awfully duisgusting and useless and pathetic they actually are
PS. That’s one horny ovis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovis
Also not a monster, a living critter.
Needs something nar it to give it scale tho’.
I wonder where these “franken sheep”fit here CAPRIDS – Size comparison | Goats & Sheep.youtubde clip – five and a half minutes long. Throw in the odd Tibetan Antelope there too.. not that throwing one would actually be easy or advisable.
I once did a study sequencing ancient DNA from sheep bones found in a bone midden in one of the Central Asian fortresses that were erected by Alexander the Great. Surprisingly the largest bones from the midden turned out to not be from domestic sheep at all, but instead from argali (though most likely not the polii subspecies). These wild sheep truly are enormous.
PS. Ovis / Ovine / Ovids.. what “eggy” names for placental, non-egg laying mammals huh?
@StevoR
Cognates of the English term “ewe”.
The Italian king that was contemporary with Musdolini had poor eyesight, so deer were sent between fences right past his shooting position.
Even Göring – who fancied himself a hunter – was appalled.
About enormous sheep… there was an Australian splatter film about mutated sheep getting back at humans. Imagine huge flocks of approaching zombies, but more wooly.
Rick tried to explain it to me last night. This entire story is so surreal I am supposing an AI wrote it.
How about they substitute sheep for nazis. Nobody would mind them shooting nazis.
I suppose that if someone could figure out how to make squirrels grow enormous spiral horns then it would become suddenly cool to mount squirrel heads on the wall. There seems to be an inverse relationship between men who must kill for the trophy and the size of their testicles.
I was waiting for someone to say, “Frankenstein was the scientist, not the sheep.”
@16: see “jackelope”
@16 map61 — Same inverse relationship holds true for their giant trucks aka “pavement princesses” aka “emotional support vehicles.”
… an unnamed lab which created 165 cloned embryos…
Finding a name for that lab seems kind of important, actually. In ’96, Dolly the clone-sheep embodied what we considered a major breakthrough in mammal cloning – have the techniques gotten to where Bubba’s Bait Shop, Bible College, & Best Bestarium can crank ’em out for any customer who walks in the door with a cell sample and sufficient cash?
StevoR @ # 5-6: … some pathetic douches think it makes them somehow impressive and “winners” and luminas “alphas” [male]s to deliberately go out and murder animals that pose them and others sod all threat…
I hope someone cross-checks Shubart[h?]’s hunting seasons and the “adult” Trump brothers’ travel schedules to see if the latter have any sorts of alibi (not that it would remove them from the “pathetic douche” category if they did…).
“…they were raising great big sheep on ranches so big game hunters could pay big money to shoot a large animal. On a farm.”
Also referred to as a “canned hunt,” where an animal is confined in a smaller area to make it easier to shoot. Legitimate hunters are disgusted by this practice. Another example of this is Wayne LaPierre’s elephant hunt in Africa. I think the video is still up on YouTube (over his objections), if you have a strong stomach.
My dad is a lifelong big game hunter who went on a canned hunt once for a bison. He said that it contained all the excitement of buying a package of beef at the grocery store.
Can’t stop him from hunting, but I’ve tried steering him toward feral pigs- if he’s going to hunt something, an invasive species seems preferable to native ones. No luck yet.
OP article:
AP coverage fills in some gaps.
On-site hunting had been banned, so his “alternative livestock” facility outsourced that to other states.
Besides the international trafficking, he also bought local wild game parts.
* DOJ’s press release added “Montana law […] prohibits the sale of game animal parts […] and prohibits the use of Montana game animals on alternative livestock ranches.”
* DoJ added “Marco Polo argali are […] prohibited in the State of Montana to protect native sheep from disease and hybridization.”
@birgerjohansson #13:
Black Sheep. It was a NZ film. It wasn’t very good, unfortunately.
Without a gun, a ram is no joke. Even a normal-sized one.
@microraptor #22, if your father wants a hunting challenge, wild boars and feral pigs should give him plenty. I am not a hunter and never was, but I know that pigs are very intelligent and not very easy to kill by shooting. They smell you for miles and are very agile. And if shot up close, they can soak up damage and a wounded pig can easily gore a man to death before it succumbs to injuries. There is a reason why in European legends hunting boars was seen as a big achievement.
Thanks for the explanation!
I was unsure how any of the breathless reporting could make any sense. But if they are just cross-breeds with wild sheep (ultimately the same species as the domesticated sort, which have been selectively bred over the centuries for a manageable size) then that’s actually pretty unremarkable, when all things are considered.
Why can’t we just have a law punishing any deliberate or reckless zoicide with imprisonment?
@ 25 Morales
With a gun a human is no joke dickhead. Even a normal sized one.
The argali sheep are a different species from domestic sheep.
There are seven species of sheep in the sheep genus, Ovis.
At least some of these species can cross hybridize though, including in this case, the argali and domestic sheep.
Canned hunting is offensive to me, as it should be to anyone who takes hunting seriously. Real hunting involves a lot of skills besides point and shoot. If you’re eating the animal (which every hunter should), a successful shot is just the beginning. You’ve got to clean the animal and, in the case of big game, pack it out. Packing is hard work to begin with, made harder if the animal, say, fell down a cliff. Sometimes, it’s about knowing when NOT to shoot. Plus, there’s all the preparation–make surer you’ve got enough of the right kind of gear to survive, learn the animal, all that great stuff. There’s a canned hunting spot about an hour northeast of here for pheasants. I’ve been there a couple of times with my dad to watch him work new dogs (it’s a good place for a fledgling bird dog to get the scent and the feel of pheasant hunting) and I’ve seen some odd pheasant behavior, peculiar to pen-reared birds. A biologist with Wyoming Game and Fish tried to get it shut down a few years ago, but there was such public outcry that they kept it going. I am somewhat mollified by the fact that pheasants are naturalized birds and can be found outside canned hunting areas (although warm, dry winters and the lack of CRP has adversely affected insect populations, which has affected pheasant recruitment), but I am still far from comfortable with the idea.
John Morales @25: I had a teacher my senior year in high school who was attacked by a ram while feeding her neighbor’s sheep (the neighbor had asked her to do so while the neighbor was out of town). The attack happened on a Thursday evening. The teacher finally came back to school the following Tuesday and looked like she’d been hit by a car.
Charly @26: Yeah, I don’t know why my dad’s not interested in pig hunting. But he isn’t.
UnSilentBob:
Been done to death: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HuntingTheMostDangerousGame
@11. lasius : Thanks – that makes sense now.
@Rich Woods : “Black Sheep. It was a NZ film. It wasn’t very good, unfortunately.”
Wasn’t that meant to be a comedy?