A judge has ordered an American poacher to repeatedly watch the film "Bambi" after hundreds of deer were illegally killed and beheaded.

David Berry Jr, 29, was told he must view the animated Disney classic at least once each month during a jail sentence of one year.

The movie includes an iconic scene in which a hunter shoots the fawn Bambi's mother.

Berry's first viewing of the film in a Missouri prison must be before Dec 23, Judge Robert George ordered.

Conservation agents called the poaching case one of the biggest in the history of the state.