'It wasn't supposed to happen that way' says man, 52, facing charges in connection with illegal bison hunt

A 52-year-old Portage la Prairie man accused of leading an illegal bison hunt on another man's farm says he believed he had permission to get the animals back after the man who bought them from him no longer wanted them.  

Police believe Sean Gebler misled three people into killing six bison on another man's property under the guise of a "hunt" on Oct. 14, charging participants $1,000 per animal. 

"It's difficult and it wasn't supposed to happen that way," he told CBC on Saturday.

Gebler, who has a bison herd in the Rural Municipality of Alonsa, said he sold Brendan Liske six bison in April, but said Liske wasn't satisfied with their health and hadn't paid the full price they'd agreed upon. 

The two were in touch for several months over whether Liske would pay the remainder, with Liske ultimately appearing to tell Gebler he could take the animals back.

In text messages between the two dated July 3, Liske told Gebler he was moving at the end of August and that Gebler could "deal with" the bison once he was gone.

"I think what's best is once I'm gone, there will just be those six bison and calf left in the pasture and you can do what you gotta do to get them out," Liske wrote in the message. "Unfortunately, not my problem."

Liske said in the message that if Gebler "planned on shooting in the pasture" all his bison had to be gone first.

RCMP said earlier this week Gebler had been charged with mischief and theft over $5,000.

"Like his [text] said, he told me to go do it," said Gebler. 

When contacted by CBC on Saturday evening, Brendan Liske insisted he did not give Gebler permission to shoot the animals.

"I would never allow somebody to kill my cows. That's a huge loss right there. And I'm lucky I had insurance," he said.

CBC also sent a screenshot of the text exchange to Liske at his request, but he did not immediately comment.

RCMP are aware of the dispute between the two men over the sale and return of the six bison, calling it a "civil matter" they will have to deal with through the civil court process. 

It "does not change the fact that criminal acts took place to which the accused will be appearing in Russell court on Jan. 22, 2025," wrote Sgt. Paul Manaigre when reached Sunday.

Deal with accused went bad: rancher

In an earlier interview on Saturday, Liske told CBC he was looking to grow his bison herd and met with Gebler who was selling some of his animals for cheap. He was about to buy six of the man's cows for $10,000 in April, but said the deal soured when he saw the bison appeared to be in rough shape and were two different species.

Instead, he said he paid Gebler $6,000 for the bison up front and said he would pay the other $4,000 if all the cows had calves, Liske said. Only one female did, so Liske didn't pay the remainder, leading to a dispute between the two, he said. 

"He lied to me to get the sale and then I didn't get my calves, so I wasn't going to send him the extra money for something that I didn't have," Liske said.

But Gebler said Liske only paid him $4,200 and sent CBC News a photo of a transaction matching that amount dated April 27 of this year. 

Gebler said it was supposed to be a deposit of $5,000 and told Liske that he should either send the rest of the payment or he would get his money back and come get the bison back.

"But then he said 'I do like them I'll send you a [cheque],' and then that was going on for six months," said Gebler. 

Gebler also told CBC News he never advertised a hunt mentioning Liske's address. 

He said 13 of his other bison had gone missing from a ranch in the rural municipality of Alonsa after a storm in August. 

Gebler said he placed an ad on Kijiji asking for help getting back the bison and a first group went out to look for them two weeks before Thanksgiving.  

Gebler said the first effort to find them was unsuccessful and said the search continued into the Saturday before Thanksgiving, but this time with another group.

"And I was like, 'well, I'm not going to have these guys drive all the way again and not find them,'" he said. "I want to actually see my herd so that at least I'm not wasting people's time and then I thought, 'Oh well, the easy one would be if I could find the six that Brendan [Liske] promised to leave behind." 

Gebler said he went to the address Liske gave him, which turned out to be the wrong one. He said a neighbour gave him the right address to the property. 

Gebler said he finally spotted the bison at Liske's property on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. He said the next day was when the bison were shot. 

Liske said on Oct. 12, one of his 32 hidden trail cameras showed a black pickup truck parked near the fencing around his herd, but he didn't consider it suspicious at the time because people often come to admire the bison.

Two days later, his farmhand contacted him about getting a new set of keys, saying the lock on the gates had been changed.

Liske immediately checked his trail cameras and saw footage of the same truck, along with off-road vehicles, dragging multiple dead bison through his gate and pasture. When he returned to the site, he found the gate locks had been cut and changed, and there were blood spots on the ground where the bison had apparently been killed, he said. 

Four of his original wood bison and two of the six bison he purchased in April were killed, Liske said. He believes all six cows were pregnant. One of the cows had a calf that he's worried won't survive without its mother's milk, he added.

He's only harvested one bison for meat so far, he said, but plans to harvest and sell meat at the ranch, located in the rural municipality of Russell-Binscarth — about 300 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg. 

Trying to track down the meat

Liske said he's trying to track down the remainder of the meat from three of the six animals that were killed. 

He started his herd about two years ago by buying 31 wood bison from a retired farmer and was able to grow it to 60 before the six bison were killed, he said. 

Robert Johnson, the president of the Manitoba Bison Association, said advertising a guided hunt for bison "is very, very abnormal."

"If you're buying or selling something, especially online, be aware of scams or know who you're dealing with," he said.

Kaitlyn Mitchell, director of legal advocacy for Animal Justice, said the animal advocacy group has filed a complaint with the province's animal health and welfare branch. The organization hopes the accused will face additional charges for killings that violate the Animal Care Act's prohibition on inflicting "acute suffering, serious injury or harm" to an animal.

RCMP said earlier this week that additional charges are likely, but in a Saturday email, Sgt. Paul Manaigre said he was not aware of any additional charges being laid at this point.

The accused is expected to appear in court on Jan. 22, 2025, in Russell, Man.

"Let the justice system handle it," said Gebler. "Don't stalk me, don't threaten me … just wait for the justice system and wait for the truth to come out."