A Montana livestock ranch isn't where you'd expect to find cutting edge and highly illegal cloning operations.

An 81-year-old man was sentenced to six months in prison for his yearslong effort to create giant hybrid sheep for captive hunting operations.

A Montana man was sentenced to six months in prison for being connected to an effort to create a giant sheep hybrid for captive hunting, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Monday. Arthur “Jack”

Arthur “Jack” Schubarth of Vaughn was convicted on a charge of conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act, and substantively violating the Lacey Act as part of an almost decade-long effort to create giant sheep hybrids in the United States with an aim to sell the species to captive hunting facilities.

An 81-year-old Montana has been sentenced to six months in federal prison and ordered to pay $24,000 in penalties for using tissue and testicles from large sheep hunted in Central Asia and the U.S. to illegally create hybrid sheep for captive trophy hunts in Texas and Minnesota.

A Montana man who conspired to create massive hybrid sheep then sell the animals to Texas game hunting ranches will now spend half a year in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Arthur "Jack" Schubarth,

A rancher from Montana was sentenced to six months in prison on Monday for using parts from protected sheep to create giant sheep hybrids, aiming to sell the species to captive hunting facilities. For nearly a decade,