Man, 81, sentenced to 6 months in prison for trying to create giant hybrid species of wild sheep
Man, 81, sentenced to 6 months in prison for trying to create giant hybrid species of wild sheep
Schubarth’s primary motivation for designing such a creature was to sell the sheep at an exorbitant price for captive trophy hunting in Texas and Minnesota.
Archive/mirror: https://archive.ph/MDDHV
According to the article, he was cloning generic material from a species of sheep that's banned in the state he was doing it, and he was forging inspection reports to move the sheep in and out of the state. Not sure the creation of the hybrid species was really the crime.
the need to impose a sentence that would deter anyone else from trying to “change the genetic makeup of the creatures” on earth.
Dogs, cats, cows, pigs, chickens, horses, sheep, literally every domesticated animal has had it's genetic makeup changed either indirectly or directly by humans. Is there no way to get a sentence thrown out if your judge proves themselves to be totally ignorant on the subject?
And it's even more true with plants. Pretty much every one we eat has been crossbred and/or genetically modified.
Creating giant hybrid species of wild sheep is a very specific law to break.
This is actually kind of hilarious. He could basically be a character in the MaddAddam trilogy...
But what's particularly interesting is what he pulled off without the means that a giant pharma company could do. Like, if someone with those resources tackled this, maybe we really could have Jurassic Park
We've already got goats with spider silk proteins in their milk.
This man is a legend and should be treated as such.
I'm not sure how I feel about captive trophy hunting. On the one hand, these animals live to die (don't we all?). On the other, I have to imagine larger healthy trophies are more valuable, so the animals are probably leading a healthy life.
But if you're the kind of person who has to murder a captive animal in order to possess something to display, then I have to wonder if you missed the point of trophy hunting.
As a lifelong hunter (for the meat), this shit is disgusting.
I have never seen what the point of dick-measuring trophy hunting is to start with, but at least I can somewhat respect people that go to a ton of effort to find a trophy animal in the wild, tramping up and down a lot of miles of bush to scout long before the season opens. It takes a lot of work to find these animals because there's a reason they've survived long enough to get to trophy size. Those animals don't taste good (I've passed up shots on "trophy" animals because of that) but as long as they use the animal, who am I to say that's wrong.
But paying someone to essentially release a farm-raised trophy animal so it walks in front of you to get shot is a fucking joke, and the people that call that hunting should crawl back under a rock and be ashamed. And these jackasses never keep the meat, at best the guide sells it or donates it, if it doesn't just get tossed to the dogs.
I've made the mistake of talking with a few of this type, and they are invariably completely entitled fuckwads that I wouldn't let in my house.
The point isn't the thrill of the hunt, it's the ostentatious display of the trophy that you can show off to all your guests
I came here thinking he was fucking sheep to make the hybrids.
I am supremely disappointed.