US Man Cloned Marco Polo Sheep- Gets Charged

alsaqr

alsaqr

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An 81-year-old man from Montana faces sentencing in federal court on Monday for illegally using tissue and testicles from large sheep hunted in Central Asia and the U.S. to illegally create hybrid sheep for captive trophy hunting in Texas and Minnesota.
 
ilbob said:
Cloning sheep is illegal?
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The sheep he cloned was a Marco Polo ram from Kyrgistan (sp?) north of Afghanistan. Different sheep breeds can breed with other sheep of a different subspecies. The idea was to create large (300 lb.) rams with those beautiful spiraling horns.
CITIES is an international agreement not to tamper with existing species which they deem are in peril. It was also a violation of the US Lacey act that doesn't allow crossing state lines for illegal acts concerning wildlife.
1) He imported pieces of a Marco Polo sheep to Montana wherein he also had an illegal product (CITIES) cross international borders and state (Lacey) borders.
2) He then tampered with the genetics of a threatened species with the intention of crossing it with domestic sheep which could possibly introduce new diseases to both domestic and indigenous wild sheep.

There are penalties involved with these acts.
 
What Patocazador said; I have no sympathy for the Montana guy. There's a long history of good intentions leading to terrible results. Kudzu, nutria, burros and aoudad in my part of the world. As much as I like hunting and eating Axis, there are some early thoughts that they're altering the behaviour of the native WT in the Texas hill country. Is it good or bad or even true? Who knows.
 
There is a fine line out in the real world when it comes to endangered or threatened animals. In many respects it is not only reasonable but maybe should be encouraged to have, well let's call it mass production for lack of better terms, by people of these types of animals. We all know most animals end up in precarious situations due to habitat loss and either low value or negative value to local people. More than likely the situation on the ground will not substantially improve such that the animals suddenly flourish. Captive breeding programs can build up the species as a whole and be self sustaining by generating revenue by using excess animals. Seems like a win-win, though rights group very much disagree. They would rather a tiny pocket of wild animals are watched and worried over incessantly as it dwindles into oblivion than have huge domesticated herds which are commercially viable.
 
I find it shocking that Texas would be a permissible environment for exotic species and genetic manipulation ;)
 
jmorris said:
Well, people are begging to stop the illegal substances crossing our border. What more could we expect from our leaders...
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Well said. God forbid the Government stop actual threats, drugs, or gang bangers. At least we have the sheep invasion controlled.
 
Me too when our leaders fund gain of function research in China (so normal oversight measures are useless) then create a world wide pandemic out of their efforts.

At least no one in the US is playing with genetics...

Must be the ear tag that made this rack so big.

rack1.jpg rack.jpg

I suppose one really just needs to get the .gov to fund the project before they start. Seems to be the best way to get the approval of those that enforce the rules they make or not.
 
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