For years, Rusty Berry and other members of his family illegally hunted deer in Missouri, prosecutors said. Investigators said they often did so at night with spotlights, a practice prohibited in the state, and took the antlers as trophies, leaving the carcasses in the fields.
The Missouri Department of Conservation said family members had bragged to acquaintances about killing as many as 1,200 deer.
Berry pleaded guilty to several wildlife-related violations. Judge Robert George sentenced him to prison, ordered restitution, and suspended his hunting privileges. In addition, during his year of probation, he had to watch “Bambi” at least once a month: about twelve times. In Disney’s 1942 film, a hunter kills the young deer’s mother.
