A Montana man pleaded guilty before a federal judge to two felony wildlife crimes for an almost decade-long effort to create giant sheep hybrids to sell the species to hunting facilities, the U.S. Department of Justice announced this week.
Eighty-year-old Arthur “Jack” Schubarth of Vaughn, Montana, is the owner and operator of Sun River Enterprises LLC – also known as Schubarth Ranch – a 215-acre “alternative livestock” ranch, according to a March 12 press release from the DOJ.
Schubarth conspired with at least five other individuals between 2013 and 2021 to genetically engineer a larger hybrid sheep species that would garner higher prices from shooting preserves, according to the release, which cites court documents in his case.
“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 (ENRD) …