Accused Missouri poacher must watch 'Bambi' in jail for illegally killing hundreds of deer

A southwest Missouri family was recently convicted for killing deer illegally. The case was declared as one of the state’s “largest conservation cases involving the illegal taking of deer.”

Four men have been sentenced with one of them being forced to watch the Disney movie “Bambi” as part of his jail time.

David Berry Jr., 29, was sentenced to watch the movie "Bambi" once a month in prison. This part of his sentencing will last during the one year that he will be behind bars.

Berry Jr. and three others were accused of illegally killing hundreds of deer. The other people who were sentenced included his brothers and father.

For more on this story go to our Twitter account @amomama_usa. All four men were said to have illegally killed hundreds of deer over at least three years.

In 2016, the police started making arrests in relation to the probe. The men broke many hunting laws, including hunting out of season and using illegal weapons.

The convicts would sometimes cut off the heads of the animals and just leave the bodies of the deer carcass to rot in fields across Lawrence County, Missouri. On Monday, Missouri Department of Conservation Protection Division Chief Randy Doman spoke to the media.

He stated:

"This was not hunting, this was poaching. We're talking in the hundreds of illegally killed deer over at least three years."

Berry Jr. pleaded guilty to taking wildlife illegally and was sentenced earlier this month to a year in Lawrence County jail. County Judge Robert E. Green was the one who also sentenced the suspect to watch the Disney film as punishment.

The 1942 classic animation is about a baby deer named Bambi whose mother is shot and killed by hunters. The suspect and his father, David Berry Sr. also lost their hunting, fishing, and trapping privileges for life.

Berry Jr.'s two brothers, Eric and Kyle, and another man in the group also lost their privileges for periods ranging from 5 to 18 years. The group also paid $51,000 in combined fines.

Blake Fischer is an Idaho state conservation official who emailed photos of himself smiling alongside wild animals he had killed during an African hunt. His colleagues were not impressed and he was forced to resign.

Governor C.L. 'Butch' Otter was informed in October that Fischer would be stepping down from his post as the head of the Idaho Fish and Game Commission.