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.
  • @[email protected]
    29•7 months ago

    If an 80 year old rancher can source parts for DNA, and then clone and breed the resulting animal, and also sell it’s semen to other people across the country… Wtf else is going on with cloning no one knows about?

    • @mods_are_assholes
      10•7 months ago

      I remember shortly after Dolly was born, everyone was talking about cloning.

      Then a few months later China claimed to clone a monkey (it was eventually found to be fake)

      But everyone was silent about it after the initial news release. Almost no one was talking about it and most people don’t even remember it.

      I think this was on purpose to hide the fact that we already have human clones and the first ones are likely 20+ years old now.

    • @Klear
      6•7 months ago

      I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.

    • @sramderEnglish
      2•7 months ago

      Certainly sounds like there are lab services out there willing to play things a bit loose. Although I’m guessing you could substitute testicles for every instance of “animal parts” in the article. So more IVF than Jurassic Park. Although “Alternative Animal Ranch” really does inspire an Island of Dr. Moreau vibe.

  • WisensEnglish
    25•7 months ago

    Wait, how did he clone the sheep? That’s a key part that seems to be glossed over.

    The man cloned an animal and made a hybrid super sheep and the article just barely mentions the cloning!

    It’s like if a guy got stopped while riding a motorcycle with a shark over his shoulder, and a news article only mentioned the shark in passing. Explain the shark, please!

    Edit: spelling

  • @jordanlund
    9•7 months ago

    Someone is going to go over this law with a fine toothed comb.

    Importing endangered animals? Clearly illegal.

    Killing endangered animals and bringing in parts? Clearly illegal.

    Bringing in endangered animal DNA and making more endangered animals? 🤔

    I dunno… I’m not well versed enough in law, ecology, or animal husbandry. It really feels like this is a new area.

    Let’s take the hunting angle out of it. Say I brought in Siberian Tiger DNA for the express purpose of creating and breeding tigers and hybrids in captivity… wouldn’t that just be species preservation?

    • @Cornelius_Wangenheim
      3•7 months ago

      The problem is that if any get out, they could interbreed with the native bighorn sheep and pollute their gene pool.

    • @Pilferjinx
      2•7 months ago

      Yeah, I can’t see why they wouldn’t be able to do this. As long as you’re not abusing and torturing them I don’t see a problem. Just make sure the animals don’t escape into the wild.

    • mommykink
      6•7 months ago

      Did you read the article? There’s something just a little uncool about genetically modifying animals to be more profitable hunting trophies. Dude can rot for all I care.

      • DominusOfMegadeus
        23•7 months ago

        Nah, I have to disagree. Is it completly morally bankrupt? Almost certainly. Is it uncool though? Nah, that is mad-scientist-grade cool as fuck. I will graciously accept y’all’s excoriation.

      • @schmidtster
        11•7 months ago

        We do it to the food we eat, whys there a line?

        • @Tikiporch
          4•7 months ago

          He smuggled bits of endangered sheep from Europe.

          • @schmidtster
            6•7 months ago

            Yeah the way he did it wasn’t the best and if any escapes there’s definitely potentially downsides, but at the same time, the ingenuity is something else.

          • @schmidtster
            1•7 months ago

            And entertainment is just as important to a satisfying full life as food is. Once mental health starts declining, so does everything else, even basic health. So it’s arguably even more important, since depression can kill your will to hunt/forage or even eat.