Wildlife trafficking case results in $20,000 fine for Montana man

A Montana outfitter just found out that stealing wild bighorn sheep genetics will cost you. John Lewton was sentenced October 20 in federal court in Billings after pleading guilty to violating the federal Lacey Act — specifically, trafficking wildlife.

The sentence: a $20,000 fine and one year of probation. During that probation, Lewton is barred from any commercial hunting, fishing, trapping, or outfitting activities. He can’t even tag along with someone else who’s doing that kind of commercial work. For a guide, that’s a significant hit.

Here’s what he did. Back in October 2019, Lewton guided a client on a bighorn sheep hunt on public land in Montana. The client killed a trophy-sized ram. After the harvest, Lewton collected the sheep’s testicles and sold the reproductive material to an alternative livestock ranch up in Vaughn. That’s not a gray area. Montana law explicitly prohibits that kind of transaction — the unlawful sale of wildlife parts and any dealings that connect wild animals to alternative livestock operations.

Honestly, this one’s particularly ugly because of what’s at stake. Bighorn sheep are some of the most carefully managed animals in this state. Anyone who’s glassed a ram on the Missouri Breaks or watched a herd pick its way across a ridge above the Sun River knows how fragile these populations can be. Disease kills bighorn fast and hard — entire herds can be wiped out in a single event. Introducing outside genetic material, especially through channels that bypass every health and regulatory safeguard we have, isn’t just illegal. It’s genuinely dangerous to wild sheep across the region.

FWP warden investigator Bryan Golie has been working this case since 2020. His take cuts right to the bone.

“It’s a sad thing to see how these wild sheep genetics were stolen from our citizens, to ultimately end up being sold to out-of-state high-fenced shooter farms for nothing more than a profit and a trophy on the wall,” Golie said.

Warden investigator Dirk Paulsen didn’t mince words either. “Montanans have worked hard to protect the wildlife that we all cherish. The individuals in this case, driven by ego and greed, utilized every advantage and technology available to target our biggest and best wildlife.”

In my experience, most guides and outfitters in this state take their responsibility to the resource seriously. They push for access, fight for habitat, and spend their off-seasons doing the kind of work that never shows up in a brochure. Cases like this one make that community look bad, and they deserve to be called out. Selling off wild genetics to a high-fenced operation so some out-of-state buyer can hang a manufactured trophy on his wall — that’s not hunting. That’s poaching dressed up in a guide license.

Montana restricts the import and export of prohibited species and the sale of wildlife and wildlife parts for good reason. Those rules exist to keep disease out and keep our wild populations intact. They’re not bureaucratic red tape. They’re the reason we still have sheep to hunt.

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