Listen, I don’t claim to know everything about how the world works, but I am pretty sure nothing good is going to come from this cloning business.
I mean, I’ve seen Jurassic Park. Heck, I’ve even read the book.
Now this Montana man thinks giant sheep are the perfect answer for “big game hunters” who don’t want to leave the States.
The sheep in question are the Marco Polo argali sheep. They’re the biggest sheep in the world, weighing in at up to 300 pounds, and are native to Central Asia.
The spiraling horns on their heads can span as many as 70 inches.
Arthur “Jack” Schubarth thought that wasn’t big enough, though, and had plans to create a giant hybrid sheep bred exclusively for big game hunting.
His mad experiment would selectively breed Marco Polo argali sheep with other sheep on his Montana ranch.
The only problem is, his plans violated international and federal wildlife laws.
He imported biological tissue of the argali sheep from Central Asia without declaring it, then had a lab create cloned embryos.
His 215-acre ranch was home to the ewes who carried these embryos. After they were born he selectively bred them to create larger and larger offspring.
He also sold sperm from Marco Polo argali sheep to others and illegally obtained DNA from wild Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in an attempt to breed even bigger sheep.
Schubarth pled guilty to two felony charges of wildlife trafficking and conspiracy to commit wildlife trafficking, facing a maximum of five years in prison for each count, as well as a $250,000 fine.
He hatched his plot back in 2013 with the help of others, who as yet, remain unnamed.
Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim issued a statement about the case.
“This was an audacious scheme to create massive hybrid sheep species to be sold and hunted as trophies.”
The problem would come when one or more of these sheep inevitably escaped its enclosure and bred with wild Montana sheep, effectively letting the sheep out of the bag that can never be reclosed.
Or at least, not easily.
For me, there has to be an ethical consideration, too, because have you ever met a sheep?
They do not have the mental capacity to ever be a challenge to hunt, which means the scheme would ultimately end in humans with guns slaughtering animals who haven’t got the brains to run away.
Sounds reallllllly fun, right?
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