Cottage Grove Wild-Game Meat Plant Owner Charged for Operating Without License

Oregon State Police charged 30-year-old Tanner Gates, owner of Gates Family Tradition on Gowdyville Road in Cottage Grove, with 11 misdemeanor counts of violating wildlife law after investigators determined he had been processing wild game without a state license for nearly a year.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture confirmed to troopers that Gates' processing license had lapsed last June. When investigators arrived at the facility at 31776 Gowdyville Rd., they found 10 deer heads and cut antlers on the property, along with records indicating Gates had processed close to 300 deer since his license expired.

Gates told troopers he lacked the $2,000 fee required to renew his ODA license and had offered his truck as collateral. He told investigators he was on the phone with the Oregon Department of Agriculture trying to obtain a new license at the moment troopers arrived.

The enforcement action came as the business had already drawn online complaints from hunters who said they dropped their deer off at Gates Family Tradition but waited months without receiving their meat back. Some hunters reported never receiving it at all. Anyone who had animals processed at the Gowdyville Road facility since June 2024 should contact Oregon State Police or the Oregon Department of Agriculture's food safety division. Meat processed outside of state inspection carries no regulatory assurance of proper temperature control, hygiene, or handling, meaning product from that period should be treated with caution.

The case illustrates how an unlicensed wild-game processor can operate with little visibility: no ODA inspection schedule, no required recordkeeping submitted to regulators, and no labeled packaging to trace product back to a facility. Under Oregon law, a commercial processor that accepts animals from the public and prepares meat off-site must hold a state license. The narrow custom-exempt carve-out, which allows processing without a license, applies strictly to meat prepared for the exclusive use of the animal's owner and must carry a "NOT FOR SALE" label. A commercial operation like Gates Family Tradition, which marketed its services for deer, elk, and bear, does not qualify.

The ODA's licensing requirement exists precisely to keep those safeguards in place: temperature logs, sanitation protocols, and chain-of-custody records that let regulators trace a problem if one surfaces. None of those protections applied to the roughly 300 deer processed at Gates Family Tradition after June 2024.

Officials in Cottage Grove and Lane County encouraged anyone with concerns about locally processed meat to contact Oregon State Police or reach the Oregon Department of Agriculture through its food safety division. Criminal charges against Gates remain pending, and administrative penalties from the ODA are also being pursued.