'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 $1000 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 $5000.

"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.

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.