It's a movie that's been bringing audiences to tears since 1942, and now, a Missouri man convicted of illegally killing hundreds of deer has to watch it once a month while sitting in his jail cell.
Earlier this month, a judge in Lawrence County, Missouri, sentenced David Berry Jr. to one year in jail for illegally killing hundreds of deer over the course of several years. While serving his time, he must also watch Bambi — the Disney tear-jerker about a deer whose mother is killed by a hunter — once a month. "If Bambi gets the point across to him, I don't have a problem with it," Lawrence County Prosecutor Don Trotter told BuzzFeed News.
The Missouri Department of Conservation said David Berry Jr., David Berry Sr., and other members of their family killed hundreds of deer, took their heads for taxidermy purposes, and left the bodies behind to rot. Anyone who tried to stop them was threatened, Trotter said. The investigation into one of the state's largest poaching cases took several years, with Berry Jr. and Berry Sr. arrested in August. Defense attorneys asked the judge for a light sentence because Berry Jr. has a new baby, but he was unmoved. "You can watch Bambi and think about your own child when you do that," Trotter said.
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