In September, a man from Montana was sentenced to six months in prison after he trafficked a clone of one of the world’s largest sheep species. Court documents allege that Arthur Schubarth trafficked body parts of a near threatened Marco Polo argali sheep into the US from Kyrgyzstan and in 2015 contracted with a lab to create a cloned sheep he later named Montana Mountain King (MMK). Later, the documents allege, Schubarth used MMK’s semen to impregnate ewes and then sold offspring—each carrying some Marco Polo argali genetics—to people involved in big game hunting.
It’s a weird case. It’s likely only the second time that an American has been prosecuted