A US judge has ordered an American poacher to repeatedly watch the film Bambi in jail after he illegally killed and beheaded hundreds of deer.
Poacher, David Berry Jr, from Springfield Missouri, was told he must view the classic Disney animation from his Missouri prison at least once each month during his year-long jail sentence.
It's believed that the reason for the unusual punishment is that the Disney film contains an iconic and harrowing scene of a hunter shooting the eponymous character Bambi's mother and the fawn's desperate cries for help.
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Judge Robert Geoge has ordered that the prisoner must sit through his first screening of the Disney classic before Sunday, 23rd December 2018.
Official court records from the hearing say that the poacher: 'is to view the Walt Disney movie Bambi, with the first viewing being on or before December 23, 2018, and at least one such viewing each month thereafter, during defendant's incarceration in the Lawrence County Jail.'
Conservation agents have declared that the poaching case is one of the biggest in the history of the state of Missouri.
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Prosecutor, Don Trotter, said: "The deer were trophy bucks taken illegally, mostly at night, for their heads, leaving the bodies of the deer to waste."
The poacher was convicted of the crime of illegally taking wildlife in Lawrence County, south-west Missouri and sentenced to a 120-day sentence for a firearms offence.
The poacher and his father - also called David - have had their hunting, fishing and trapping privileges revoked for life by the Missouri Conservation Commission.
Father and son were both on probation for taking gamefish by hand when they were caught poaching the deer, and have now been convicted of taking wildlife illegally.
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Berry Sr is currently awaiting his sentence for his most recent offence.
Randy Dorman from the Missouri Department of Conservation condemned the men's "greed and ego." He added: "Taking just the heads is their version of obtaining a "trophy" and leaving the carcass behind is merely an afterthought.
"While there are some cases where poachers go after the antlers for profit, with this bunch it was more about the thrill of the kill itself."
Two of the poacher's other relatives: Eric and Kyle Berry, had their hunting and fishing privileges revoked for 18 and eight years respectively. Another accomplice, Jerimiah Cline, has had his permits frozen for five years.
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They were ordered to pay $51,000 in fines and court costs.
Andy Barnes, a conservation agent, told the Springfield News- Leader: "It is unknown how many deer the main group of suspects has taken illegally over the past several years. It would be safe to say that several hundred deer were taken illegally."
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