Moore Outdoors With Chester Moore 10/04/24--Chester conducts an investigative episode on bizarre poaching cases

• Chester Moore conducts an investigative episode on bizarre poaching cases including local eagle killings and a massive case involving wildlife trafficking and cloning.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to More Outdoors. On News Talk five sixty kl VII,
this is Chuester Moore with a special investigative report dolphins
on one of America's most beloved animals, from flipper thrilling
families on television the nineteen sixties to modern day dolphin encounters,
aquariums and resorts. The love affair families have with dolphins

(00:21):
as a strong one. So when game wardens in Orange County,
Texas found a dead dolphin impaled by a fishing arrow,
it sent shockwaves across national media outlets. This happened in
my hometown. So a couple of days after the incident,
I spoke with the local game board. He revealed the
type of fishing broadhead used in the incident was only

(00:44):
sold at one location in the region, a popular archery shop.
He said, quote that has really narrowed down our search.
We'll find out who did this, he said. What official
did not expect was that the perpetrators were too few.
Teenage brothers who, while both fishing, came across a young
dolphin that had wandered into fresh water. So instead of

(01:08):
enjoying seeing the beautiful protected marine mammal and reporting it
was in an unusual area they killed it. This happened
only a few miles from my home in twenty fifteen
and opened my eyes to a problem few in our
industry have discussed. In my opinion, America has a teen
poaching crisis that needs to be addressed in a major way,

(01:33):
and it's very, very dark. Less than a year later,
a team from Jefferson County, just one in County over
was charged for killing two whooping cranes. A judge ordered
the nineteen year old to pay twenty six thousand in restitution,
barred him from owning a possession of firearms or ammunition,
and prohibited him from hunting or fishing in the United States.

(01:57):
He was also sentenced to two hundred hours of community service.
Shortly after this made headlines, I asked a Galveston County
game warden if she had noticed any trends and game
and fish violations among teenagers. The answer blew me away quote, Yes,
they need to stop killing our eagles. Take, for example,

(02:20):
a seventeen year old Harris County, Texas boy, who was
charging connection with the shooting of a bald eagle near
white Oak Bayou. It was one of a pair that
actively nested in the area for several years. A bald
eagle the symbol of the United States of America. Yes,
a bald eagle. The most heinous instance of eagle poaching

(02:43):
came from the Pacific Northwest, Washington, Fish and Wildlife police
said a Sheriff's department officer found evidence of teens purposely
hunting for and poaching eagles. This is a quote from
an official press release. Officer Bolton and the deputy searched
the area for downed wildlife and soon discovered a relatively

(03:06):
fresh dough deer on the hillside near where the suspects
had parked. Four older deer carcasses in various stages of
decomposition were found in the same location. The officers learned
that one of the young men shot the dough the
night before by using a high powered spotlight. The animal

(03:27):
was then placed near the other carcasses in an effort
to bait in and shoot eagles. That's not an incident
of an impulsive act of game law violations. That's a
calculated effort that involves multiple poaching incidents to purposely kill eagles,
most likely for the black market trade in their claws

(03:49):
and feathers. Over the last eight years now, multiple other
incidents involving teens killing eagles have occurred across the country.
But it's not just eagles and dolphins. An eighteen year
old and a twenty three year old were charged with capturing, harassing,
and harming three endangered key deer, the smallest subspecies of whitetail,

(04:12):
which is also a federally endangered species. According to a
report at Local ten dot com, the eighteen year old
said he lured three of them with food, restrained them,
and put them in the car in a plan to
take pictures with them. All three deer had to be
euthanized due to broken legs. An article at go hunt

(04:33):
dot com details two high school age males are guilty
of proaching ten mule deer in Maconbe County, Montana. Quote
According to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the deer were
killed with a shotgun using loads typically used for pheasants.
All of the deer were discovered on a two mile

(04:54):
stretch near Road five twenty eight in northern Maconbe County.
Not to be outdone, four Pennsylvania teenagers went on a
white tail poaching spree that one wildlife official called quote
one of the most disturbing incidents he's ever seen. Two
seventeen year olds and one boy age sixteen, killed at

(05:17):
least thirty deer by spotlighting with the headlamp or their
car lights, exiting the vehicle in the deer rich area,
and opening fire. Officials said they probably wounded many more
than could be accounted for. Quote. It was almost like
a video game for them. They did it because they
were bored, said Clinton Denecker, a wildlife conservation officer with

(05:42):
a Pennsylvania Game Commission, and a press release issued after
the Grizzly incident, There is no telling how many deer
were killed or wounded, he said, adding that he can
account for at least thirty. A twenty twenty incident in
Wisconsin involved multiple teens over the course of a month,
killing forty white tails and one horse, all of them

(06:06):
were left to rot, and there are numerous other incidents
involving dozens of deer and other game killed in similar
sprees by teens all around the nation. This is not
an indictment of teens. It's not one of those diatribes
we often hear in our culture, like the kids these
days are rotten. I dedicate much of my life to

(06:27):
working with teens. I believe in them and think there
are things about the current crop of teens that shows
incredible promise for our future. But this team poaching thing
has to be addressed, and it has to start with
an admission. Most, if not all, of these teens came
from hunting families. While we as hunters rightfully denote that

(06:48):
poaching and hunting are actually radically different practices, these kids
are familiar with game firearms, and in several instances were
engaged in legal hunting as activities when an opportunity to
poach came along. That means somewhere down the line, we
have to for those of us in the hunting community

(07:10):
talk about this issue and find ways to engage it
with the kids directly. But we need to ask some
questions first. How much does parental influence play into this?
There is no question some of these cases involve a
long line of game law violations generationally. A twenty nineteen
case from Alaska as a prime example, as a father

(07:32):
and his seventeen year old son killed a mother bear
and her two babies and a den. What they didn't
realize was the bear had a GPS collar on it
and a camera to monitor their hibernation habits, so they
got busted in short order. A father who raised his
son or daughter to go to the level of killing
baby bears in a den shows authority figures can play

(07:56):
a large role influencing teen poaching, but it's not the
entire answer. Social media notoriety in our culture, some of
the most famous people are now famous for only doing
something famous or controversial. They haven't actually accomplished anything, but
those who have broken laws or done immoral things and

(08:17):
publicize them on social media are famous. Is there a
link between social media celebrity and team poaching. A twenty
twenty Texas case was solved because the team that poached
to deer that was well known living in a neighborhood
bragged about it on Facebook. Officials believe the aforementioned Pennsylvania

(08:40):
teen deer massacre was being communicated behind the scenes through Snapchat.
Something else to look at is the power of suggestion.
Social media and traditional outdoors media outlets have unfortunately been
a place for dark sentiment regarding wildlife. While we can
agree that much of the quote green movement has little

(09:01):
to do with actually protecting the environment. Some of the
rhetoric rallying against it is quite dark and it's hauntingly
similar to things we're seeing play out in some of
these teen cases. A few years back, I encountered several
people who use social media and at least one outdoors
radio program to suggest shooting dolphins as a cure for

(09:24):
ailing flounder populations. When we come back on More Outdoors,
we're gonna talk more about this unusual investigation I've been
doing for several years into what I call the teen
poaching crisis, and it really started right here in Southeast Texas.
If you have any stories to share, or you know,

(09:45):
testimonies of maybe your involvement with things like this, but
maybe you change your heart over the years, email me
at chester at Chestermore dot com. I would love to
speak with you. When we come back, we're gonna talk
more about the teen poaching crisis. Welcome back tomorrow Doors
on news Talk five sixty KLV. This is Chestermore with

(10:05):
our special investigative edition about the poaching crisis. This was
a quote from an email I got when I responded
to this on my social media quote. They are always
out there in the past, is flipping those flounders out
of the water and eating them, so we should start
killing some of the dolphins end quote. Interestingly, this radio

(10:27):
program that said this broadcasted in the area where the
teens shot the dolphin. This idea, by the way, gained
a large enough following that I received multiple emails and
social media messages about it. I don't know how many
times I've heard things like wild game meat tastes like

(10:48):
bald eagle or spotted owl. Those comments aren't funny and
could be damaging to the cause of hunting uttered in
front of a non hunter, But could they also influence
teams who want to impress adults. It's something to ponder.
Games are also something that needs looked at. A few
years ago, I received a hunting video game to review

(11:08):
in the mail. I'm not a gamer, and since it
was unsolicited, I did not review it, But when I
came across this team poaching crisis, I studied the game.
The game had multiple opportunities to kill non game and
even endangered animals. Some hunting games are very ethical, with
bag limits, seasons, and other aspects of how true hunters

(11:29):
conduct themselves. I would even say most hunting games I
have seen are not set up in a way that
are negative toward animals. But there's another side to it.
There are some games based on survival that have nothing
to do with hunting and killing animals as part of it.
This includes non game protected and endangered animals, and it

(11:51):
makes me circle back to the quote from the warden
in charge of the Pennsylvania case quote it was almost
like a video game for them. They did it because
they were bored. Looking into the content of first person
shooter games is certainly something we should do as families,
and maybe for those of us who work in the
hunting industry start looking more seriously at it. There is

(12:15):
obviously a gap somewhere in wildlife education and awareness of
the penalties for these kinds of atrocities. Teens have had
their lives uprooted by the consequences of these senseless actions.
The great news is there are more teens engaged in
conservation than there are poaching, and it's time we highlight
them even more in media outlets like this one. The

(12:38):
Houston Safari Club Foundation education work with Houston and area
school districts is a shining example. Teens get to see
conservation and centric hunting information and are inspired to give
back to our natural resources. Programs like Texas Brigades often
do a great job of instilling a conservation ethic. I
have personally been inspired to see how mentoring can help

(12:59):
teens through our Higher Calling, Wildlife expeditions and mentoring program,
and one particular occurrence touches directly on this issue. I
took fourteen year old Nathan Childres on a quote green
hunt for Nubian ibex at a friend's ranch. Instead of
a standard rifle, he had a dart gun and the
mission was to dart the massive ibex billy to jump

(13:21):
the fence and gotten into another pasture. After a long
afternoon of hunting, Nathan made a perfect shot. He got
to inoculate the ibex against disease, post with some cold
photos with it, and help move it to another pasture.
As the sun set on the Texas Hill Country that evening,
Nathan said something profound quote, when people teach you the

(13:43):
right way to hunt and you get to do things
like this, you want to do the right thing to
honor that. I will never poach animals because I respect
him too much and want to make sure kids ten
years from now can have opportunities like I just had.
We can have more testimonies like this, like Nathan's testimony,

(14:06):
if we invest more time and effort not only into
youth education but mentorship. But we also have to dig
into what is happening with teens in this poaching crisis
raging across America. Something is influencing teens and not only
damage wildlife populations and tarnus to reputation of legal hunters,

(14:27):
but it also damages their lives. As an industry that
I'm part of, we must confront this for the sake
of the future of wildlife and argue this team poaching
crisis thing has been near and dear to my heart
because of the work I do with kids and my
love of wildlife. But I don't want you to think
the one's doing poaching our youth. I recently came across

(14:50):
a shocking poaching situation that law enforcement officials made a
case on in New York and it is absolutely an
incredible and not in a good way. The good part
of it is the great work of the law enforcement
officials of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation and
joining us on the program. I have Captain Joshua Verhey

(15:14):
and we're going to talk about this shocking case. How
did wildlife officials first become aware of this scheme of
what was going on.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
So in the area, we have a couple of wildlife
photographers that were recording through their lenses the deer in
the area. And in this part of New York State,
the area is closed completely for safety reasons to hunting.
And with that, as majority of your listeners probably know,

(15:45):
if there's no hunting, deer have the opportunity to grow
big and abundant. So even though it is in a
suburban setting, there's still enough small patches of woods that
the deer have the opportunity to reach reached some max potentials.
So through that these photographers were noticing some other people

(16:10):
come into the area as well as as time has
progressed and more and more with shed hunting and people
become aware of shed hunting online social media groups. Through
the wildlife photographers and the shed hunting social media groups,
really we're putting it out there that hey, look what
I found, Look what I'm seeing.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
And so between those two areas, we the individual started
noticing gut piles as well as some other suspicious activity
and that was reported to us.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
All right, So there was you know, in the press
release I mentioned this this online part of this. So
these people were kind of infiltrating online groups of photographers
and maybe shed hunters to get intel.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
Basically, yeah, correct, Specifically they were part of a shed
hunting social media group. One of the individuals took it
to the next step to really analyze the size of
bucks by creating a fake wildlife photographer social media account

(17:25):
to get into that group and really see what was
out there. And so the reconnaissance was being done from
a remote setting, and what more of a better avenue
than wildlie photographers taking pictures of one hundred and sixty
one hundred and eighty inch deer and you could sit

(17:46):
at wherever they were looking at the size of these deer.
It had been going on for a while. Unfortunately, with
Statute of Limitations after the fact, we were limited on
the enforcement. We did have other violations going beyond the statute.
But that's just how the law works, and that's okay.

(18:07):
We need to work within the confines of the law
and that's fine. So we had estimated that it was
going on for about five years, going back to about
twenty eighteen.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
Twenty eighteen. Now, was it only in this particular area
or did you get the idea that this might be
going on in other areas as well?

Speaker 2 (18:29):
Other areas through evidence found under search warrants, through social
media accounts, through cell phone accounts, and then physical search warrants,
we found evidence in other parts of New York State,
even as close to the confines in New York City. Yes,
there's there in New York City as well as other

(18:53):
states along the Eastern seaboard, and we did reach out
to those states for the evidence that we observed. They
did conducted and investigations, but were unable to make a
case off of those.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
So you have the individuals that were mentioned in the
news release and the one that was posing as a
female wildlife photographer. So is this something that looks like
it had tentacles other places and maybe had been more elaborate.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yes, it was completely targeted coaching. They knew the deer
they wanted and the group. In my nineteen years, this
was the most sophisticated, sophisticated organization of poaching. You know,
I have seen groups of friends, family members get together

(19:41):
and hey, let's go jack a deer, and they were
a ninear season.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
When we come back on More Outdoors, we continue our
conversation with a special investigator on one of the most
shocking deer poaching cases of all time. These are the
kinds of stories you only get here on More Outdoors
on News Talk five point sixty KLVI. Welcome back to
Morrow Doors on News Talk five sixty klv I. Get

(20:06):
the podcast of this show via the iHeartRadio Apper. Go
to KLVI dot com and click on the podcast link.
Follow me at v Chester more on Instagram, Highercalling dot
net my blog continuing our conversation about the poaching crisis
with a special investigator.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
What's interesting about this case is the use of social media,
which we have seen before, but how the use of
the wildlife photogosphers and the shed hunting groups to specifically
target bucks, to use their accounts as well as text
messaging threads and specifically target a buck. Hey, this weekend,

(20:45):
we're gonna go shoot this and whatever the name of
the deer was, This one hundred and sixty inch deer,
This one hundred and eighty inch buck. I'm not going
to settle for this one hundred and forty inch buck
in the area, This one the most sophisticated organ and eyes.
I should say yeah. For targeting specific deer. It's not
just hey, we're going to go put some meat in

(21:07):
the freezer. This is we're going to go shoot this
monster buck on this day because we know it's in
this area because of this wildlife photographer, because of this
social media account puts it there two days ago, and
so I know, even in the middle of the rot
this deer is relatively close here. We're going to find it,
We're going to shoot it.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
Wow. Was there any evidence they used like geo tags
they could find in photos?

Speaker 2 (21:31):
No, we of course the technology allows different avenues to
detect that. I don't recall any avenues where they were
utilizing it. They through their shed hunting, which is the
off season, through their SHD hunting opportunities in the area.
They generally knew the patches of woods that these deer

(21:53):
were in, so unforeseen on this case with that technology use.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
Now, in terms of this social media aspect of this,
was this mainly being done through like Facebook groups where
their snapchat involved Because I've heard of a poaching case
and I believe it was Ohio that had some Snapchat
elements in it.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yes, yeah, yeah, both were being used. The regular text
message thread being used. And just to mention another part
of the case which makes it interesting, this is plain
day plane, middle of the day on a weekend, playing clothes,
maybe a little bit of camel. But their approach was

(22:37):
to pose as hikers, wildlife photographers, normal people just out
enjoying a nice fall afternoon. They're not dressed in full
camo hiding in the bush and trying to get away
with it. Middle of the day and again suburban setting,
so using all avenues possible. We did see some potential

(23:01):
for hiding smaller bows, compact bows. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
That was my next question about getting archery equipment in there.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, yeah, and that was something I've never seen before.
As technology increases, you know, manufacturers are taking bows and
hunting equipment to the next levels. It's outstanding because we're
you know, certainly you want the most efficient, clean kill,
surest of the animal. But with that also comes some
other complications. They were able to fit a bow into

(23:32):
a backpack and if you were looking at them, you
would never think that that person had a bow in
their backpack. They also, which I've never seen before, I
had walking sticks and they would hide the arrows within
the walking sticks again to give them that additional level
of just being out there and enjoying it. So any

(23:54):
individual and probably even law enforcement would not think that
they were up to poaching itivities.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah, I didn't have the earmarks. And you know a
lot of times you think of, you know, some guy
poaching area like that, coming out at night with the
twenty two magnum or something and you know, with a
little headlight, yeah or whatever, And that's kind of in
East Texas here what happens most of the time. Or
but these guys obviously had, you know, a game plan.
And I'm a bow hunter myself, and when I first

(24:21):
heard archery equipment involved, I thought it might have been
some of these really tiny crossbows. But when I noticed
it mentioned compact bows, I went and checked out an
archery shop. At the smallest bows they had, I'm like,
you know, you could fit that in a backpack, you know.
So that was an interesting aspect of this. Now in
terms of the individuals and maybe some of the other

(24:41):
things you looked at, did you get any sense that
this might have been part of the reason they did it?
Was the thrill of going in and doing this and
particularly targeting certain bucks or was there any kind of
like we're going to sell the racks off of these
or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
Nothing revealed the sound of the rep during the physical
search warrants of the subject's residents. This was not the
first time they had shot a I wouldn't say world class,
but a very nice, mature deer that majority of public
would not see in their hunting lifetime. I think a

(25:21):
lot of it was for self motivation, self gain, ego
driven type things to say that we shot some big bucks.
Nothing was shown for sale or purchase in the investigation,
and we dug pretty deep.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
It's a very interesting case. And you mentioned you like
getting the search warrants and going in. There was a
particular deer in the press release at our road where
it ran into someone's backyard.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
Again going back, yes and no. So being a suburban setting,
majority of the areas that they're hunting are surrounded by
residential or apartment complex and so on. The one individual
was observed walking what would have been behind the one
of the complainant's house in the backyard, but it was

(26:09):
owned by another entity. So the deer after it was
shot because we put the time piece together wobbling, as
the complainant had told us, in what was on the
patch of woods, but not in physically owned by the complainant,
but would be what you would consider like, hey, that's
my backyard, Like what are you doing? Yes, the individual

(26:31):
and the dying deer as it was mortally wounded and
eventually deceased not too far from where the complainants sow
it would have been in the person's backyard.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
It's a very interesting case. And the reason I want
to do this is just a sort of raise awareness
to how far poachers will go and how maybe they
can use modern technology to do things. And people who
maybe you know, have private herds of animals or property,
or you know, have animals and urban settings suburban settings
around their homes. So how did this make you look

(27:06):
as a department more at the social media aspect of
how people can you know, scout out poaching opportunities.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
Absolutely, huh. This level of a fake account is certainly
something that we need to and when I say we,
it's not just New York State, but the natural resource
law enforcement across the country and perhaps the world need
to look at the organization level of it because it's

(27:37):
there and it's present.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
What should the public in terms of posting photos of
wildlife is there should we be concerned about, you know,
giving two specific information of locations of wildlife and things
like that to be photographed.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
That's a tough question. You know, if the public is
out there taking forward listen, who doesn't love seeing? If
you love the you love seeing seeing pictures, you love
seeing different wildlife that are native to your state, or
whatever the scenario be. What I think the would be

(28:12):
the pitch to the public is the obscure scenarios That
just doesn't make sense. You know, if you're common to
this area and you're the wildlife photographer and you've never
seen somebody hiking of this nature for you know, the
last ten years you've been in there or whatever it is,
see something, say something that you know post nine to

(28:33):
eleven is a common thing, even in the wildlife tract.
If it's uncommon, please call your local agency and specific
to New York. You know, we get complaints all the time.
We get hey, I saw this, and we love it.
If it's at the local din or coffee shop, gas station.
Communication is the only way because you know, majority of

(28:56):
your natural resource law enforcement, your game boarders out there.
We're green for a reason. High but believe it or not,
where we are not out there twenty four to seven,
and we do need the public's help, and we appreciate
the public's help and hopefully it's a give back to
those people that are doing it the right way.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
Well, we have an audience all over, So how could
someone in New York report? So is there a phone
number the specific website and then they can text.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
Yep, New York State d you see? It's do you
see dot ny dot gov That gets you to the
department's website. And under the Division of Law Enforcement, you
can reach out for our eCos at any time. We
have twenty four to seven dispatch. They can certainly make

(29:46):
the call and get officers rolling at any time.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Well, we come back on More Outdoors. We're going to
wrap up our conversation about this very intriguing topic of
wildlife crimes here on More Doors on News Talk five
sixty KLVI. Welcome back tomorrow Outdoors on News Talk five
sixty KLVI. This is Justin Moore. Get the podcast of
the program at klvii dot com and click on the

(30:13):
podcast link. A Montana man was recently sentenced to six
months in prison and a half define for a case
involving trafficking and cloning of a Marco Polo sheep. I
have the really intriguing backstory on this that I believe
is going to blow your mind. About a year and

(30:33):
a half ago, someone told me that there was a
rumor that there had been a Marco Polo sheep cloned
in Montana. This immediately jumped out at me, because you
can't bring Marco Polo sheeps live into the United States.
You can bring harvested trophies, but there are no Marco
Polo sheep or other argalli, which are the Asian wild

(30:55):
sheep brought into the United States of America. At this point,
then they showed me a photo and it was obviously
a screen capture from a social media post. There was
no name attached to it, but it showed a Marco
Polo sheet. Now, this Marco Polo sheet looked like it
was in a sort of captive setting. It was grassy,

(31:15):
but looked captive. It could have been in Montana, or
it could have been in Mongolia, and I just kind
of forgot about it, kind of filed it in the
back of my mind, and a few months later, on
this very podcast, I was interviewing someone about cloning for
a project being done for some extinct species, and in
the course of that conversation, the person I interviewed mentioned

(31:39):
that someone in Montana had cloned big horned sheep. And
then all of a sudden, it just clicked. Montana is
not a state like Texas where you can just bring
anything in. For example, it's illegal to bring in mouflon
or Transcaspian urial or our golli. Interestingly, so it just clicked.

(32:00):
Dislike where there's smoke, there is fire. So on February tenth,
twenty twenty three, I reached out to the Montana Fish,
Parks and Wildlife Department and reached out to someone in
the Wildlife Division, and the answer that I got was
very interesting. The answer, exactly verbatim, is quote, I am
unaware of any sheep cloning that has occurred in Montana

(32:24):
involving domestic or exotic species, regardless the possession of any
prohibited exotic species cloned or otherwise would be in violation
of state law. I afforded these concerns onto the Law
Enforcement Division. As of February fourteenth, twenty twenty four, I
have not heard from the Law Enforcement Division. What I

(32:46):
didn't realize was there was a major federal wildlife case
that to this day is ongoing on this particular subject.
A Montana man has been charged with trafficking and conspiracy
under federal law for cloning a Marco Polo sheep, as
well as breeding and selling its offspring and DNA across

(33:08):
several states. This broke last week. Marco Polo sheep inhabits
Central Asia's premier mountains in nations such as Mongolia, to
Djikistan and Kyrgyzstan and can only be imported as trophies
with strict permitting. This includes a Convention on the Trade
of Endangered Species side's export permit from the country in

(33:30):
which it was harvested, in addition to a permit for
the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for import, possession
and other uses. The defendant, Arthur Jack Schubarth, entered into
a plea agreement with the federal officials for one count
of Lazy Act trafficking and one count of conspiracy to

(33:50):
violate the Lacy Act. The Lazy Act, according to Forest Legality,
was initially created in nineteen hundred and it's a US
law that bans te trafficking of fish wildlife for plants
that are illegally taken, possessed, transported, or sold. Shoe barth
in five named co conspirators labeled persons A through E

(34:10):
by federal officials were allegedly involved in various activities. Three
persons are from Texas, one from Montana, and another from Minnesota.
Court documents reveal the following. On or about January twenty fifth,
twenty thirteen, person A entered the United States with biological
tissue from Marco Polo Argali sheep that had been hunted

(34:34):
in Kyrgyzstan. Person A did not declare the animal parts
upon entry. On or about January thirty first, twenty thirteen,
shoe barth entered into a quote sell storage agreement with
the corporation for storage and preservation of the above reference
tissue from a male Marco Polo sheep named Rocky. On

(34:56):
or about October sixth, twenty fifteen, shoe Barth e I
entered into an ovine cloning contract to clone an unspecified
number of Marco Polo sheet from the tissue. He provided
a down payment of forty two hundred dollars for the cloning.
On or about November twenty second, twenty sixteen, Shue Barth
received one hundred and sixty five cloned Marco Polo embryos

(35:20):
at the Shue Barth ranch in Montana. On or about
May fifteenth, twenty seventeen, a pure Marco Polo or Golli
sheet mail was born from the cloned embryos, which Shue
Barth named Montana Mountain King or MMK for short. Starting
in twenty eighteen, the latest Shubarth harvested seamen from Montana

(35:43):
Mountain King in order to inseminate use for one of
the as yet unnamed people in the documents. There's a
lot to this story that has many many implications. We're
making no judgments on those implications here, just reporting the facts.
I did reach out to the Department of Justice upon
hearing about this entering the courts, and I got this reply.

(36:04):
Thank you for reaching out. Unfortunately, due to the ongoing
nature of the case, we don't have any comment to
pass along at this time. The cloning of the Marco
Polo sheep, also known as the Premier Argalli, from an
as yet undisclosed piece of tissue represents a significant advancement
in cloning technology and accessibility to the general public from

(36:28):
the successful cloning of Dolly the sheep, the world's first
cloned mammal, way back in nineteen ninety six. This is
the first significant case involving wildlife cloning, and it has
potentially huge implications across several areas of the wildlife industry.
As I said in the intro, this was something I

(36:48):
was sort of looking at for over a year and
a half. I had just little pieces of information that
had filtered my way, and when I heard about the
cloning of some big horns in Montana, I thought there
had to be some kind of connection and maybe the
Marco Polo cloning was a reality. Well, it is a reality,
And I actually went online and looked at some of

(37:10):
the people's Facebook profiles and things and saw photos, mentions
of cloning, lots of stuff like that on there. So
this is an interesting case, and we'll probably have people
over the next year as this thing unfolds, talking about
different aspects of what's going on here, perhaps on the program.
I want to get this news information to you. First.

(37:33):
You heard it here, folks, A Marco Polo sheep that
was cloned from tissue brought into the United States, was
born in Montana, and offspring from that were created. And
we're seeing for the very first time new sorts of
wildlife crimes identified by the federal government. Really interesting time

(37:55):
to be a wildlife journalist. What do you think about
the cloned Marco Polo sheep? Shoot me in an email,
mail at Chester at Chestermore dot com. Like to hear
your thoughts about this case. And if you have any
information on any cloning of wildlife that's being done out there,
something I might have missed, Shoot me an email Chester
at Chestermore dot com. I always appreciate the feedback, and
with the news of this story in terms of the

(38:17):
sentencing breaking this week, I thought it'd be a good
time to go into the backstory of what's going on
with this cloning of the Marco Polo sheet. And you know,
the concern for me is not that someone hybridize the sheep.
That's been done forever in the exotic animal world. Has
been done forever, and you know, breeding horses and you
know dogs and all kinds of stuff. But what concerns

(38:40):
me more is that cloning technology, which we really don't
know a whole lot about US so easily accessible, so
covering this story, I thought it was an interesting way
to bring in a truly fascinating topic. And if you
want to go back into the archives of More Outdoors
you can find an episode I did about cloning with
someone who works with a group called Revive and Restore

(39:03):
that does cloning work for the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
They've worked with them on cloning and successfully cloning the
blackfooted ferret and endangered mustulid from the United States of America.
It's actually a Texas native no longer here, but they've
successfully cloned those. There's a lot of projects, including a
mammoth cloning and a thylascene cloning project around the world.

(39:24):
We talk about those on the episode, and that's one
of the things you can get from going back and
listening to the archives of More Outdoors.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
Here.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
I just can't do a normal outdoor show, folks. I
have to dig into things that are really making a
difference in some of these things. Maybe we're ahead of
our time on but I appreciate you listening. I appreciate
the incredible feedback I get here on More Outdoors. You
can always email me at Chester at Chestermore dot com.
You can also message me or find me on Instagram

(39:53):
at the Chestermore. That is The Chestermore on Instagram, Higher
clog dot net, my blog, my golf, great white Sharks block, God,
bless and have a great outdoors weekend