CAP. 207, CATTLE BRANDING ACT BELIZE
CATTLE BRANDING ACT CHAPTER 207
REVISED EDITION 2000 SHOWING THE LAW AS AT 31ST DECEMBER, 2000
This is a revised edition of the law, prepared by the Law Revision Commissioner under the authority of the Law Revision Act, Chapter 3 of the Laws of Belize, Revised Edition 1980 - 1990.
This edition contains a consolidation of the following laws- Page
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS 3
CATTLE BRANDING ACT 5 Amendments in force as at 31st December, 2000.
BELIZE
CATTLE BRANDING ACT CHAPTER 207
REVISED EDITION 2000 SHOWING THE LAW AS AT 31ST DECEMBER, 2000
This is a revised edition of the law, prepared by the Law Revision Commissioner under the authority of the Law Revision Act, Chapter 3 of the Laws of Belize, Revised Edition 1980 - 1990.
This edition contains a consolidation of the following laws- Page
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS 3
CATTLE BRANDING ACT 5 Amendments in force as at 31st December, 2000.
THE SUBSTANTIVE LAWS OF BELIZE REVISED EDITION 2000 Printed by the Government Printer,
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CHAPTER 207
CATTLE BRANDING
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
1. Short title.
2. Interpretation.
3. Compilation of the National Register of Brands.
4. Publication of National Register of Brands.
5. Death of holder of registered brand.
6. Periodic revision of brands.
7. Compulsory branding of cattle.
8. Notice of brand before use.
9. Registration of brands.
10. Notice by person unable to write.
11. Inspection of brands.
12. Powers of inspectors of brands and police.
13. Branding of cattle with intent to defraud.
14. Brands for public pound.
15. Transfer of cattle between districts.
16. Cancellation of registered brands.
17. Record of animals registered.
18. Power to stop person driving cattle on roads.
19. Power of Police.
20. Keeping of skins of slaughtered cattle.
21. Proof of ownership of cattle.
22. Evidence of Register of Brands.
23. Offence.
24. Slaughter of cattle without brand or brand uncured prohibited.
25. Record of cattle slaughtered in slaughter house.
26. Penalty.
27. Regulations.
SCHEDULE
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CHAPTER 207
CATTLE BRANDING
[27th December, 1958]
1. This Act may be cited as the Cattle Branding Act.
2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires:-
“brand” means any letter or combination of letters or any letter or combination of letters in conjunction with a number distinctly and permanently impressed or made or intended to be distinctly and permanently impressed or made upon any cattle;
“cattle” includes any bull, cow, heifer, ox, steer, calfs, or any horse, mare, gelding, colt, or filly, or any mule or ass;
“district” means a judicial district as declared and defined under the Inferior Courts Act;
“owner” includes any proprietor of cattle or his agent or manager;
“Registrar of Brands” means the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry responsible for Agriculture, or such other person as the Minister may nominate in writing.
3. From and after the date specified by the Minister by Order published the Gazette, there shall be compiled and maintained by the Registrar of Brands a National Register of Brands used for the branding of cattle. The National Register shall, subject to such modifications and alterations as the Registrar of Brands may consider necessary, and as from the specified date, contain the several particulars comprised in the various district registers of brands on the day immediately preceding that date.
CAP. 170, R. E. 1980-1990. 20 of 1958. 40 of 1963. 8 of 1964. 5 of 1977. 42 of 1999. Short title.
Interpretation.
CAP. 94. 5 of 1977.
Compilation of the National Register of Brands. 5 of 1977.
4.-(1) Subject to section 3, the Registrar of Brands shall prepare and publish in the Gazette two lists of the brands used in Belize.
(2) One such list shall be in alphabetical and numerical order of brands; and the other in alphabetical order of the names of the persons entitled to use the brands.
(3) Copies of the National Register shall be kept at each police station and in the Office of the District Agricultural Officer, and shall be open to inspection by the public.
(4) Such registers shall be amended or added to from time to time under the written direction of the Registrar of National Brands, who shall cause all amendments or additions to the National Register to be published in the Gazette.
5.-(1) On the death of a person, whose name is on the National Register of Brands, his executor or next of kin, as the case may be, shall within thirty days of the death, give notice in writing to the Registrar of Brands of such death.
(2) Any person who fails to comply with this section commits an offence.
6.-(1) The Registrar of Brands may not oftener than once in any two years cause a notice in writing to be sent to any person whose name is on the National Register of Brands calling on him to state in writing within one month from the date of the notice whether he continues to use his brand.
(2) Any person who fails to comply with a notice under this section commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars.
7.-(1) The owner of any cattle shall cause it to be branded with his duly registered brand as provided in section 9, within twelve months of its birth or
Publication of National Register of Brands.
5 of 1977.
Death of holder of registered brand.
Periodic revision of brands.
5 of 1977.
5 of 1977.
Compulsory branding of cattle.
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within thirty days after becoming the owner thereof.
(2) No cattle which has been previously branded may be so branded as to obliterate, touch, add to or extend any previous brand, but such brand shall be separate and distinct.
(3) Any person who-
(a) fails to brand any cattle in accordance with subsection (1); or
(b) brands or causes to be branded any cattle in contravention of subsection (2), commits an offence.
8.-(1) No person shall brand any cattle with any brand until twenty-one days have elapsed after the date on which a notice in duplicate, in the Form of the Schedule specifying the brand which he intends to use for the purpose of branding cattle owned by him, has been duly lodged with the District Agricultural Officer wherein the cattle are kept.
(2) Such notice shall state the place of residence and occupation of the person giving it and shall set out the letters or numbers intended to be used as his brand.
(3) The District Agricultural Officer, on receiving the notice, shall give a receipt for it to the person sending in the notice, and shall forthwith forward the original of the notice to the Registrar of Brands.
9.-(1) On receipt of the notice referred to in section 8, the Registrar of Brands shall, if he sees no objection to the use of the brand in the notice, enter such brands in the National Register of Brands.
(2) The registrar of Brands shall publish in the Gazette all additions or amendments to the National Register of Brands.
Notice of brand before use. Schedule.
5 of 1977.
Registration of brands. 5 of 1977.
(3) If, on the receipt of the notice referred to in section 8, the Registrar of Brands considers that the use of the brand specified therein would be inconvenient, cruel or likely to give rise to error or mistake, he shall as soon as possible cause to served on the person giving the notice instructions under his hand, that such brand is not to be used, and the person who gave notice of such brand shall select for his use some other brand, and give notice thereof in like manner as prescribed in section 8.
10. Any person who desires to give a notice in writing under this Act and is unable to write shall state orally to some member of the police department at the nearest police station the particulars necessary to enable the member of the police department to make out the necessary notice, and the member of the police department shall without any fee fill up or write the notice and after reading it over to the person, shall require him to put his mark thereto, and shall then date it and sign his name to the notice as a witness to the mark.
11.-(1) The Registrar of Brands shall appoint fit and proper persons to be inspectors of brands under whose supervision or direction all branding of cattle shall be carried out.
(2) Any person who brands or causes any cattle to be branded contrary to this section commits of an offence.
12. Inspectors of brands and any member of the police department may at all reasonable times enter on any premises where cattle are kept, for the purpose of inspecting the brands thereon.
13. Any person who unlawfully and with intent to defraud brands with any brand any cattle shall be liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.
14. The Registrar of Brands shall specify a particular type of brand to be used in every public pound. He shall cause such brands to be inserted in the National Register of Brands.
Notice by person unable to write. 42 of 1999.
Inspection of brands. 5 of 1977.
Powers of inspectors of brands and police. 42 of 1999.
Branding of cattle with intent to defraud.
Brands for public pound. 15 of 1977.
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15.-(1) All persons in charge of cattle which are required by this Act to be branded, and which are being transferred on sale or on other transfer of ownership from one district to another, shall have the brands of such cattle checked by a member of the police department before such cattle are taken out of the district.
(2) Any person who fails to comply with this section commits an offence.
16.-(1) The Registrar of Brands may cancel the registration of any brand-
(a) on the application in writing of the person in whose name any such brand is registered;
(b) on being satisfied that any person, in whose name any such brand is registered is dead or has permanently left Belize, or
(c) where it is the same as another registered brand or where it may be mistaken for another registered brand, and may specify another brand to be substituted and registered in place thereof.
(2) The Registrar of Brands shall as soon as possible after such cancellation cause the deletion of the relevant entry to be made in the National Register of Brands and cause a notification thereof and the reason therefor to be published in the Gazette. He shall also publish in the Gazette the registration of any substituted brand.
17.-(1) Any person who keeps on his land or premises cattle belonging to another person, whether for the purpose of agistment or otherwise, shall keep or cause to be kept a book in which there shall be entered the name and address of the owner of any such animal and the description of the animal and its brand, and he shall allow any member of the police department, or any inspector of Brands to inspect the book at any reasonable time.
(2) Any person who fails to keep, or to cause to be kept, a book as
Transfer of cattle between districts. 42 of 1999.
Cancellation of registered brands.
Record of animals registered. 5 of 1977. 42 of 1999.
5 of 1977.
provided in subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars.
(3) Any person having the custody of a book as mentioned in this section who fails to produce it when required by a member of the police department or by an inspector of brands commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars.
18. Any member of the police department and any inspector of brands may stop anyone driving or transporting cattle along any road or waterway and may require him to give full information as to the place whence and whither the cattle are being driven or transported, and as to the name and residence of the owner thereof, and may arrest any such person who refuses or neglects to give full and satisfactory information as aforesaid and may detain him in custody until he can be brought before a magistrate, and may detain every animal found in his possession.
19. Any member of the police department may at any time enter on any premises on which he may have cause to believe that any cattle has been slaughtered, or is about to be slaughtered, and may examine all cattle and the carcasses, skins and horns of all cattle found thereon.
20.-(1) Any person who slaughters or causes to be slaughtered, in any place other than a public slaughter house, any cattle, shall be bound to keep the skins and horns, if any, of the cattle for forty-eight hours after the cattle have been slaughtered, and shall during such time produce the skin to any member of the police department or inspector of brands who may require to see it.
(2) Every person who refuses or neglects to produce the skins or horns of such cattle which he has slaughtered, or caused to be slaughtered, within forty-eight hours of such slaughtering as stated in subsection (1) commits an offence.
Power to stop person driving cattle on roads. 42 of 1999.
Power of Police. 42 of 1999.
Keeping of skins of slaughtered cattle.
42 of 1999.
42 of 1999.
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21. Any cattle on which any registered brand is impressed, or made, shall in all courts of justice, be deemed to be the property of the person in whose name such brand is registered, until the contrary is proved.
22. Any extract from a National Register of Brands kept under this Act purporting to be certified under the hand of the Registrar of Brands or a District Agricultural Officer shall without proof of the signature be received in all courts of justice as prima facie evidence of the facts stated therein.
23.-(1) Any person who brands or marks with a brand or mark likely to be permanent any cattle with any brand or mark other than a registered brand or the brand specified in a notice given by him to a District Agricultural Officer commits an offence.
(2) The proof that any notice required under this Act was duly given shall be on the person against whom proceedings are taken under this Act.
(3) The production of the receipt for the notice purporting to be signed by or on behalf of any District Agricultural Officer shall be prima facie evidence that the notice was given at the time stated in the receipt.
24.-(1) No person shall slaughter or cause to be slaughtered any cattle unless-
(a) the cattle to be slaughtered is branded; and
(b) the brand is cured.
(2) Any person acting in violation of subsection (1) commits an offence.
(3) For the purpose of this section, a cured brand is one that is completely healed.
(4) Any person to whom any cattle with an uncured brand is brought
Slaughter of cattle without brand or brand uncured prohibited. 5 of 1977.
Offence.
5 of 1977.
Proof of ownership of cattle.
Evidence of Register of Brands.
for slaughter shall, within twenty-four hours thereof, report the matter to the nearest police station, and a failure to do so shall render him guilty of an offence.
25.-(1) Any clerk of a market or other person in charge of any slaughter house shall keep a record of all cattle slaughtered in the slaughter house, and shall enter therein the date on which each such animal was slaughtered, the particulars of the brand or brands with which each such animal is branded and the name and address of the owner of, or the person slaughtering, each such animal.
(2) Any clerk of a market or other person in charge of any slaughter house shall produce his record of cattle slaughtered when requested to do so for inspection by any member of the police department or inspector of brands.
(3) Any clerk of a market, or other person in charge of any slaughterhouse, who fails to comply with this section commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars.
26. Any person who commits an offence against this Act for which no penalty is specifically provided is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars.
27. The Minister may make regulations prescribing-
(a) the part of the body of the animal on which the brand is to be placed;
(b) the duties of inspectors of brands; and
(c) generally for the better carrying out of the provisions of this Act.
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Penalty.
5 of 1977.
Regulations.
40 of 1963.
Record of cattle slaughtered in house.
5 of 1977.
42 of 1999.
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SCHEDULE [Section 8]
Notice of Intention to Use a Brand
BELIZE.
Date: ................................................
TO THE REGISTRAR OF BRANDS through the District Agricultural Officer of .................................................
NOTICE is this day given by me A. B. of X.Y.
*..............................................., that the brand with which I intend to brand all cattle belonging to me after twenty-one days from the date on which this notice is received by the District Agricultural Officer is as follows:
(Here specify, describe and reproduce the brand intended to be used and the part of the body of the cattle on which it is intended to place the brand).
....................................... Signature of Owner
....................................... Signature of Witness
*Insert occupation of owner. _____________ Receipt of Notice
I HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE to have this day received the notice of which the above is a true copy.
.............................................
District Agricultural Officer.
Date:______________
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