As a seasoned science enthusiast who has witnessed the rapid advancements of genetic engineering throughout my lifetime, I find myself both awestruck and appalled by the story of Arthur “Jack” Schubarth. On one hand, the man has achieved something truly extraordinary – cloning a giant Asian sheep, no less! The scientific prowess required to accomplish such a feat is nothing short of astounding.
In the 1993 sci-fi action-adventure “Jurassic Park” by Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg, the character John Hammond, played by Richard Attenborough, utilizes scientific means to create living hybrid dinosaurs for financial gain. These creatures, a remarkable scientific feat, should not have existed in their given time and location. Dr. Ian Malcolm, portrayed by Jeff Goldblum, aptly remarks, “Your scientists spent so much time considering if they could create these dinosaurs that they failed to consider whether or not they should.
In the present day, 81-year-old Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, residing in Montana, has been judicially punished for genetically related offenses, slightly less grandiose than his previous success in cloning a large Asian sheep on his ranch. Schubarth’s actions breached both international accords and local state and federal laws. He was found guilty of two felonies: plotting to infringe upon the Lacey Act, which forbids the transportation or trading of wildlife obtained unlawfully, and substantially violating the Lacey Act itself. Schubarth will serve a six-month term in a federal penitentiary and pay a combined total of $24,000 in fines to the Lacey Act Reward Fund and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
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The judge considered Schubarth’s age and his lack of any previous criminal record with the need to sufficiently address the crime committed and deter any future would be cloners. In addition to fines and prison time, Schubarth will undergo three years of supervised release.
The clandestine effort involving sheep cloning started back in 2013, when a Marco Polo sheep, the world’s largest breed, was illegally hunted in Kyrgyzstan. This impressive creature can weigh up to 300 pounds and has horns spanning from 5 feet at its scalp to its tip. Smuggled pieces of this animal were transported secretly to the United States and delivered to Schubarth Ranch, also known as Sun River Enterprises LLC, a sprawling 215-acre farm specializing in exotic livestock such as mountain sheep, mountain goats, and other hoofed animals.
Mostly, those animals were purchased by private hunting reserves in Texas, where trophy hunters pay a significant amount for the chance to hunt and kill them. Although traditional livestock are already expensive, Schubarth and five other accomplices aimed to clone the Marco Polo sheep to create a new, larger hybrid species that would command even higher prices.
Following the import of Marco Polo tissues, Schubarth gathered genetic material and dispatched it to a lab for the generation of cloned embryos through somatic cell nuclear transfer. This process involves extracting a nucleus from an egg cell and replacing it with one from the desired animal’s cell. Upon receiving the cloned embryos, Schubarth transplanted them into multiple sheep on his ranch, awaiting the results. Eventually, he successfully produced a single live birth – a mirror image of the Central Asian sheep species. He affectionately dubbed this creature Montana Mountain King, or MMK.
Schubarth kept an animal alive, which he employed to artificially inseminate multiple species of Montana-banned sheep. His goal was to produce a colossal super-sheep. Moreover, Schubarth sold MMK’s semen and gave permission for a local rancher to breed 74 of their sheep with MMK. The resulting offspring fetched up to $10,000 each.
In the defense’s submitted memo, Schubarth was both praised for his remarkable scientific breakthrough and criticized for the methodology. As stated in Newsweek, the document noted, “What Jack accomplished is something no one else has ever done.” The memo continued, “On a Montana ranch, in a barn, he brought to life Montana Mountain King (MMK). This extraordinary creature, born of science, was created by a man who, if given the chance, would have left the task of cloning a Marco Polo sheep to the creativity of Michael Crichton.
That’s good advice.
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2024-10-03 21:46