Page 4 - aruba-today-20241001

A4 U.S. NEWS
Tuesday 1 OcTOber 2024
Montana man to be sentenced for cloning giant sheep to breed

large sheep for captive trophy hunts

By AMY BETH HANSON Texas, while a Minnesota
Associated Press resident brought 74 sheep
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — An to Schubarth’s ranch for
81-year-old Montana man them to be inseminated
faces sentencing in federal at various times during the
court Monday in Great Falls conspiracy, court records
for illegally using tissue and said. Schubarth sold one di-
testicles from large sheep rect offspring from MMK for
hunted in Central Asia and $10,000 and other sheep
the U.S. to illegally create with lesser MMK genetics
hybrid sheep for captive for smaller amounts.
trophy hunting in Texas and In October 2019, court re-
Minnesota. cords said, Schubarth paid
Prosecutors are not seeking a hunting guide $400 for
prison time for Arthur “Jack” the testicles of a trophy-
Schubarth of Vaughn, Mon- sized Rocky Mountain big-
tana, according to court horn sheep that had been
records. He is asking for harvested in Montana and
a one-year probationary then extracted and sold
sentence for violating the the semen, court records
federal wildlife trafficking said.
laws. The maximum pun- Sheep breeds that are not
ishment for the two Lacey allowed in Montana were
Act violations is five years in This undated handout photo provided by the Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks, shows a sheep brought into the state as
nicknamed Montana Mountain King that was part of unlawful scheme to create large, hybrid
prison. The fine can be up species of wild sheep for sale to hunting preserves in Texas. part of the conspiracy, in-
to $250,000 or twice the de- Associated Press cluding 43 sheep from Tex-
fendant’s financial gain. as, prosecutors said.
In his request for the pro- done,” the memo said. “On livestock ranch, which gally brought into the U.S. The five co-conspirators
bationary sentence, Schu- a ranch, in a barn in Mon- buys, sells and breeds “al- to clone that animal and were not named in court
barth’s attorney said clon- tana, he created Montana ternative livestock” such as then use the clone and its records, but Schubarth’s
ing the giant Marco Polo Mountain King. mountain sheep, mountain descendants to create a plea agreement requires
sheep hunted in Kyrgyzstan MMK is an extraordinary goats and ungulates, pri- larger, hybrid species of him to cooperate fully with
has ruined his client’s “life, animal, born of science, marily for private hunting sheep that would be more prosecutors and testify if
reputation and family.” and from a man who, if preserves, where people valuable for captive hunt- called to do so. The case
However, the sentencing he could re-write history, shoot captive trophy game ing operations. is still being investigated,
memorandum also con- would have left the chal- animals for a fee, prosecu- Marco Polo sheep are the Montana wildlife officials
gratulates Schubarth for lenge of cloning a Marco tors said. largest in the world, can said.
successfully cloning the en- Polo only to the imagina- He had been in the game weigh 300 pounds (136 ki- Schubarth, in a letter at-
dangered sheep, which he tion of Michael Crichton,” farm business since 1987, lograms) and have curled tached to the sentencing
named Montana Mountain who is the author of the sci- Schubarth said. horns up to 5 feet (1.5 me- memo, said he becomes
King. The animal has been ence fiction novel Jurassic Schubarth pleaded guilty ters) long, court records extremely passionate
confiscated by U.S. Fish Park. in March to charges that said. about any project he takes
and Wildlife Services. Schubarth owns Sun River he and five other people Schubarth sold semen from on, including his “sheep
“Jack did something no Enterprises LLC, a 215-acre conspired to use tissue from MMK along with hybrid project,” and is ashamed
one else could, or has ever (87-hectare) alternative a Marco Polo sheep ille- sheep to three people in of his actions.q

Ancestral land returned to Onondaga Nation in upstate New York

ONONDAGA NATION TER- environment, according to The land is part of an ex- (1 million hectares) in cen- movement across the Unit-
RITORY (AP) — The Onon- the Onondaga Nation. panse of 2.5 million acres tral New York the Onon- ed States,” Hill said in a pre-
daga Nation has regained dagas say was taken over pared statement.
1,000 acres (405 hectares) decades by New York be- Rebuffed in U.S. courts, the
of its ancestral land in up- ginning in 1788 through de- Onondagas are now pursu-
state New York, a tiny por- ceitful maneuvers that vio- ing their claim before the
tion of the land members lated treaties and federal Inter-American Commission
say was unjustly taken by law. on Human Rights, which is
the state beginning in the Sid Hill, the Tadodaho, or part of the Organization of
18th century. chief, of the Onondaga American States.
The heavily forested land Nation, said Monday they The nation’s case involves
is south of Syracuse and were grateful to federal a roughly 40-mile-wide
near the Onondaga’s fed- and state officials for work- (65-kilometer-wide) strip
erally recognized territory. ing with them to return “the of land running down the
The land, which includes first 1,000 acres of the 2.5 center of upstate New York
headwaters of Onondaga million acres of treaty-guar- from Canada to Pennsylva-
Creek, was transferred by anteed land taken from us nia. The Onondagas hope
Honeywell International on over the centuries.” the case spurs negotiations
Friday under a federal Su- A sign informs drivers of the Onondaga Nation Territory’s “This is a small but impor- that could lead to the re-
perfund settlement related boundaries, Aug. 3, 2023, in central New York. tant step for us, and for turn of some land.q
to the contamination of the Associated Press the Indigenous land back