Arthur Schubarth of Montana used tissue and testicles from Marco Polo sheep to clone animal and create hybrid
  • The Bard in Green@lemmy.starlightkel.xyzEnglish
    14·
    1 month ago

    I’m super confused about why what this guy did is illegal. I guess the sheep was illegally imported? But the judge seemed to object to it on moral grounds (“Changing the genetic makeup of the creatures on Earth”). This isn’t anything biotech companies aren’t doing every day.

    I feel like if a biotech company did this, even with an illegally imported sheep, they would get some very minor cost of doing business fine for the illegal import and then they’d bring the modified sheep to market 9 months later.

    • Addv4@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15·
      1 month ago

      The main problem (been loosely following it for a bit) was that he essentially created a hybrid sheep with one that is invasive for the area. He for sure did it for trophy hunting, but at the risk of messing up the ecology of the areas he was putting it in. Arguably this is a kind minor fine ($20k for introducing an invasive species), so idk. The articles I’ve seen act mostly like it wasn’t a big deal, but he was pretty blatently trying to skirt the law through the use of trying to make a hybrid.