In 2018, David Berry, Jr. was arrested for illegally killing hundreds of deer over a period of at least 3 years. The 29-year-old, his brothers, and his father were found to have a laundry list of broken hunting laws, including hunting out of season, using illegal weapons for hunting, and hunting from their vehicle. Sometimes they would simply cut the heads off their kill, leaving the rest of the deer carcass to rot in fields across Lawrence County, Missouri. “This was not hunting, this was poaching,” said Conservation Department Chief Randy Doman. Berry pleaded guilty to taking wildlife illegally and was sentenced to a year in jail. County Judge Robert Greene also ordered that while Berry sat in jail, he was to repeatedly watch the classic 1942 animated movie Bambi — about a baby deer whose mother is shot and killed by hunters. The group of poachers also lost their hunting, fishing and trapping licenses for 5 years and were required to pay fines in the amount of $51,000. To show the video, jailers utilized a TV and DVD player inside a jail meeting room where inmates met with their attorneys. The judge also directed the prosecutor to send multiple copies of the movie to the jail, so they would always have a copy on hand.
