The saddest part is if you image search "Marco Polo argali" it's a wall of hunters posing with dead ones and right in the first paragraph on wikipedia is "Their conservation status is "near threatened" and efforts have been made to protect their numbers and keep them from being hunted"
He was congratulated for cloning, but punished for bringing in the animal illegally.
O aries were last century (1996); E caballus are more recent (2003); M mulatta current news (2020); how long until H sapiens?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_cloning#Entering_the_com...
To me the real infraction was the potential for causing disease in the native population. The rest, while morally dubious, doesn't feel like it's illegal.
I'm even confused about hunting sheep. Modern domestic sheep are not much of a challenge.
>District Court Judge Brian Morris said he struggled to come up with a sentence, but had to deter anyone else from trying to "change the genetic makeup of the creatures" on the planet.
Whatever the judge is feeling today, huh?
Far more coherent write up of the initial charges: https://dailymontanan.com/2024/02/07/montana-man-charged-by-...
Also note the charges of conspiracy. He and his co-conspirators knew what they were doing was illegal and took steps to falsify records.
I read the article, but I'm still not sure what part was illegal, and why. It says that part of the law is 'prevent the creation of hybrids', and the sentence was to 'deter anyone else from trying to "change the genetic makeup of the creatures"'... but isn't that way every animal breeder does?
I get the importation of body parts of endangered animals being illegal. If it's just a sentence for that then I get it. But then why is it written that he was jailed for cloning the sheep.