‘Gene-edited sheep’ are a hot commodity on the black market

The way the federal agents swarmed Jack Schubarth’s ranch in Montana on a late-spring day in 2021, it seemed they could have been taking down an anti-government militia. … They searched the property, found 15 guns, and piled them on Schubarth’s bed. But the guns weren’t what they came for: The agents were searching for his sheep.

Specifically, they were there for a Marco Polo argali he called the “Montana Mountain King,” or MMK for short. At the time of the raid, MMK was on his way to becoming the biggest horned ram in America. 

…

He was a clone — made by Schubarth himself, right there on the ranch, the only animal of his kind in America.

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In recent years, the ranch’s main source of income has been the sale of sheep and elk. Schubarth sells to other breeders as well as to a hunting ranch, where people pay to shoot his animals or their descendants. … Killing, or, in industry lingo, “harvesting,” is the foundation of the exotic-sheep economy.

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