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Louisiana Department Of Agriculture Sanctions Bail Pen Operators; Lot Sets Up Shop In Texas

The Louisiana Department of Agriculture announced sanctions against operators of a high-profile social media bail pen on Thursday. At a regular meeting of the Department's Board of Animal Health, officials announced impending permanent injunctions against Gary and Jacob Thompson, as well as fines for Jacob Thompson and Tara Sanders. According to charging documents, the actions stemmed from the trio operating without livestock dealer permits, which are required in the state of Louisiana.

Jacob Thompson was fined $23,000 for 23 violations of state code after the Department of Agriculture determined he bought and sold horses in the state within 30 days. Thompson's longtime partner Sanders was fined $13,000 for 13 violations of state code, including buying and selling horses without a license. The rate of $1,000 per violation is the maximum permitted by state law.

Sanders had an application for a livestock dealer's permit pending before the Board but has since withdrawn it.

The permanent injunction sought by the Department of Agriculture is intended to stop Gary and Jacob Thompson from buying and selling livestock in the state of Louisiana. Counsel for the department said they have received signed stipulations from both Thompsons and are awaiting a judge's signature to finalize the permanent injunction.

The process from beginning to end of the state's quest for such an injunction was about two years and cites incidents going back to 2018.

Jacob Thompson's livestock dealer permit renewal was denied by the Board in 2018, and a petition from the department alleged that Gary Thompson never held a dealer permit.

All three have at various times been affiliated with Thompson's Horse Lot in Pitkin, La., where Sanders has maintained the couple bought and horses with the intent to export them to Mexico for slaughter. None of them had a contract with a meat processor in Mexico, but Sanders claimed they worked through dealers to send horses into the slaughter pipeline after buying them at livestock sales. Sanders, together with Jacob Thompson, has offered horses from the lot to be “bailed” by members of the public at high prices with the threat that they will be slaughtered if they are not purchased.

Critics of bail pens say they prey on the emotions of horse lovers to make wider profit margins which are then parlayed into purchasing more horses to either go to slaughter or to fuel the bail business. Sanders has frequently told social media followers that although she makes a profit from the horses, she is offering them for sale as a kindness to horses that would otherwise die.

Read more about the slaughter pipeline in Louisiana in this 2017 Paulick Report feature.

Sanders told the Paulick Report in August 2020 that the requirement to have a livestock dealer's permit did not apply to her because she maintained residency in Oklahoma. She later announced on the lot's social media that she had purchased the business from the Thompsons. Ahead of Thursday's meeting, she told followers that she has relocated the business to Texas.

“The reason I moved to Texas is that I'm not dealing with the government in Louisiana, period. I'm not dealing with their rules, their regulations,” said Sanders in a video posted to Facebook on Jan. 27. “Lots of people can say, 'You just don't want to follow the law.' Actually, it's not that I don't want to follow the law, it's just that I grew up in Oklahoma, I lived in Texas for a long time; I don't want more government in my life. I don't want a dealer's permit. I'm not going to pay you every year to get it. I don't want to do all the things that Louisiana requires to sell livestock there.

“Louisiana is a swamp, and now they want me to obtain a dealer's permit where I have to go and let them vote on me every year to decide if I can or can't have it, which means that at all points in time, my livelihood is in the hands of strangers who don't know me … I dealt with a lot of mean girls in high school and forgive me, but I don't [expletive] want to be voted on. [Expletive] you and [expletive] that.”

At Thursday's meeting, Department of Agriculture officials acknowledged that Jacob Thompson and Sanders neither confirmed nor denied the accusations in the charge letter against her. Sanders and the Thompsons were not present at the hearing.

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Hearing In Louisiana Kill Pen Case Delayed Till December

The Louisiana Department of Agriculture is proceeding with cases against two people associated with a well-known kill pen operation in the state. Hearings for Jacob Thompson and Tara Sanders were postponed from an October meeting of the state's Board of Animal Health until its next regularly scheduled meeting on Dec. 3.

Earlier this year, the Department asked a judge to issue a temporary restraining order against Gary Thompson and Jacob Thompson, both of Vernon Parish, to stop them from buying and selling livestock. The order was also designed to prevent anyone from acting as a livestock dealer on the Thompsons' behalf. According to the state's complaint, both Thompsons had acted in the capacity of livestock dealers — buying horses and cattle and selling them within 30 days of purchase — while they did not hold dealer licenses in Louisiana.

Charges from mid-September state Jacob Thompson is alleged to have committed ten violations of state regulations requiring agents and dealers to be licensed by the Board of Animal Health and ten violations of a different regulation requiring dealers to file a surety instrument with the state in order to operate.

The Department also alleges Sanders committed 11 violations of the regulation requiring agents and dealers be licensed by the Board of Animal Health. Correspondence from the state to Sanders allege she bought and sold at least 11 horses between May and August of this year while she was unlicensed.

According to the state, Sanders submitted an application in mid-August for a dealer's license and a copy of the requisite bond or surety instrument. State officials claim the application contained material misstatements that could put the application in jeopardy. They claim there were discrepancies between Sanders' application and secretary of state filings about whether she or Thompson currently own the kill pen. Sanders claims she has purchased the kill pen business from longtime partner Jacob Thompson, and that he is now employed by the business.

Louisiana Director of Animal Health John Walther told Sanders on Aug. 14 she could not conduct business as a livestock dealer until she had a permit. The state says she did so anyway, triggering a cease and desist letter on Sept. 3 that Sanders is also alleged to have ignored. The lot has continued marketing horses for sale on its Facebook page throughout recent weeks.

Sanders told the Paulick Report in August that the state's petition for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary and permanent injunction against the business did not apply to her because she maintained residency in Oklahoma, where livestock dealer permits are not required.

The company operated by Sanders and Thompson has been marketed under various names on social media but is most commonly known as Thompson Horse Lot or JT Livestock. The lot is known for purchasing horses from various auctions in the area and threatening to ship horses to slaughterhouses in Mexico if they are not sold. Social media users are offered the opportunity to purchase the horses at a set price based on photos and videos or to contribute to the horse's “bail” fee and allow someone else to own the horse.

In addition to the state's proceedings against the pair for licensing issues, a public information act request from early October revealed the Department is in the midst of an “active animal health investigation” related to the lot. No further details were available on the nature of the investigation as of Oct. 6.

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Louisiana Department Of Agriculture Requests Restraining Order Against Kill Pen Operation

The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry and the Louisiana Board of Animal Health have filed documents in court to limit the operations a well-known bail pen in the state. The two state agencies filed a petition for temporary restraining order, as well as a request for a preliminary and a permanent injunction against Gary Thompson and his son Jacob Thompson, both of the parish of Vernon, to stop buying and selling livestock.

A court date to hear the agencies' request is set for Aug. 17.

According to the petition, both Thompsons have been expressly prohibited from buying and selling livestock after Jacob Thompson's livestock dealer permit renewal was denied by the Board of Animal Health in 2018. The petition alleges Gary Thompson never held a livestock dealer permit, which is required in Louisiana. The two have ownership interests in Thompson Horse Lot, which has marketed horses on social media under various page names as being available for “bail” from a spot on a truck headed to Mexican slaughter facilities. The petition would also prevent anyone from acting as a livestock dealer on the Thompsons' behalf.

Tara Sanders, longtime partner of Jacob Thompson, told the Paulick Report the petition could not apply to her because she maintains residency in Oklahoma, where she said livestock dealer permits aren't required. Sanders is identified in the documents as the public face of the kill pen, and is well-known to film and advertise horses out of the Pitkin, La., facility.

“I personally have no use to defend myself, those horses wouldn't have an avenue away from slaughter without someone advertising them,” Sanders told the Paulick Report. “So I stand by what I do. And I do it for the horses.”

Sanders also maintained she “had nothing to do with that [petition].”

An attorney for Jacob Thompson did not respond to a request for comment at press time.

Court documents outline a history of law enforcement dealings with the Thompsons, including a discovery in 2019 by Livestock Brand Commission officers of malnourished horses and 20 to 25 dead animals, as well as a horse suspected of having strangles at a property owned by Gary Thompson that shares the address of Thompson Horse Lot. Jacob Thompson is alleged to have shipped horses into the state without appropriate paperwork, left deceased horses in a pit in the kill pen, and to have continued buying and selling animals after his application to renew his livestock dealer's permit was denied due to past violations.

The petition also details several sales of horses he purchased from Dominique's Livestock Market and resold within 30 days for prices around $1,000 or more – significantly higher than the typical price paid for horses by slaughterhouses, which is calculated per-pound and ranges from around $400 to $600 for a large horse.

Horses listed on the company's website Friday carried prices as high as $2,500.

Thompson's and other bail lots place a price and a shipping deadline on a horse, giving Facebook followers the option to purchase the horse outright for the named price or to crowdsource the funds to raise the bail and then find someone to take physical possession of the horse. For many, concern for the animal's welfare and the tight turnaround are chief motivators in a contribution or purchase.

Interviews with purchasers of horses from Thompson Horse Lot demonstrates most of the company's purchases come from social media users. One buyer stated she hadn't intended to purchase a mare but did so to keep her from shipping south.

“I don't know how or why it came through my newsfeed, but it's called Thompson's Livestock and they were showing horses and the particular mare that I ended up buying, I seen them riding her and she looked so pathetic I offered to put up half her bail hoping that someone else would cough up the other half and get her out of there,” said an unidentified purchaser in interviews with investigators. “But nobody did and that was June 16 and a few days later, I paid her full bail because they were threatening to ship her and I didn't want to see that happen so I paid the rest of her bail and she became my horse.”

Some critics have questioned whether horses sold via Thompson's Horse Lot as bail prospects were ever in real danger of going to slaughter, given the high prices attainable for them online. Sanders maintains that while Jacob Thompson does not have a contract with a slaughterhouse himself, he supplies other dealers who do and horses are guaranteed to ship if not bailed. Others point out that the kill pen bail business serves to fund the purchase of more animals to be sent into the slaughter pipeline.

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