Okay but what are they doing with the mutant sheep?

Now for the wildest thing I've read in a while: Montana Man Pleads Guilty to Creating Massive Franken-Sheep With Cloned Animal Parts

An 80-year-old man in Montana pleaded guilty Tuesday to two felony wildlife crimes involving his plan to let paying customers hunt sheep on private ranches. But these weren’t just any old sheep. They were “massive hybrid sheep” created by illegally importing animal parts from central Asia, cloning the sheep, and then breeding an enormous hybrid species.

I watched a documentary a while ago about hunting the Marco Polo sheep. It's a pretty wild trophy hunt with high altitudes, rough terrain, and decently long shots. Reading the article, I can see why the guy would take the risk, but I was having trouble comprehending that what I was reading was an actual news story, not something out of a sci-fi book.

Man, people will do anything for a buck.

In reply to iansane :

I think it's technically a ram...

I'll see myself out.

Wait ... so dude 

Once Schubart had smuggled his sheep parts into the U.S., he sent them to an unnamed lab which created 165 cloned embryos, according to the DOJ.

All to get just one ram that he then used as a sperm donor for his ewes.

That's a lot of trouble when he could have just imported sperm from the Asian sheep.

In reply to Stampie :

Yea not sure what the whole story is there. It might have been hard to get sperm from the Marco Polo sheep given their protected status and the fact that I don't know of any herds that are domesticated. I suspect the material for cloning was from one taken on a trophy hunt.

Kyrgyzstan, I know for a fact, has taken the White Rhino approach to getting their numbers back up. Permits to take one exceed $10k plus the costs of the hunt and take place above 12,000 ft. Shots range from 300 to 500 yards on average.

Stampie said:

Wait ... so dude 

Once Schubart had smuggled his sheep parts into the U.S., he sent them to an unnamed lab which created 165 cloned embryos, according to the DOJ.

All to get just one ram that he then used as a sperm donor for his ewes.

That's a lot of trouble when he could have just imported sperm from the Asian sheep.

Yes, but with the sperm alone the best he would have had was half blood sheeps and that sperm would eventually run out and he'dhave to import more.  Now he has one pure blood, and his own source of DNA for cloning at a later date.

I follow his logic.

Mega Mutton!  Coming soon to the meat case at your local grocery.

1988RedT2 said:

Mega Mutton!  Coming soon to the meat case at your local grocery.

with some fava beans and a nice chianti!

That's definitely in the top 10 most kickass sci-fi crimes I've ever heard of.

"You can ask them, but sheep are liars."

ShawnG said:

"You can ask them, but sheep are liars."

one of my favorite jokes ever.

Maybe they ran north after the Dugway incident.......

In reply to 914Driver :

I never visited Dugway, though that was one of the sites we'd do weapons tests at my previous job. I knew they did some chemical weapons testing and disposal there but holy E36 M3.

The Guardian has more info on the cloned and hybrid sheep. Looks like Federal Fish and Wild Life are holding the cloned Marco Polo sheep and they explain how the rancher got the genetic material to begin with. Looks like they're going to neuter them then (?).

I made weapons and did failure analysis; was supposed to go to Dugway for a visit.  Thankfully it got canceled at the last minute.  I can imaging some ambulance chaser screaming at me on the TV:  "If you've EVER visited Dugway Proving Grounds you could be compensated ..... "    

Uh oh.