A judge in the US state of Missouri has sentenced a prolific poacher to repeat screenings of Bambi, the Walt Disney classic weepy about a fawn whose mother is slain by a hunter.
David Berry Jr is to be forced to see the animated movie at least once a month during his year-long jail term, the result of what police described as one of their “largest-ever poaching investigations.”
Berry and two family members were arrested on charges of killing hundreds of deer over three years, said the Missouri Conservation Authority, which announced the sentence on Thursday last week.
“The deer were trophy bucks taken illegally, mostly at night, for their heads, leaving the bodies of the deer to waste,” Lawrence County Prosecutor Don Trotter said.
Berry’s hunting privileges had already been revoked for past infractions and he was on probation.
Walt Disney Co bewitched generations of children with its pioneering animated film, released in August 1942, about a wide-eyed young deer and his doting mom.
However, the shocking image of young Bambi curled up next to the doe after she is slain by hunters has become as iconic as any scene in cinema history, credited with opening up taboo conversations about death and helping youngsters cope with bereavement.
Judge Robert George sent Berry to jail for one year and ordered the viewings to be conducted by sheriffs at the Lawrence County Jail.
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