11.     Appointment of Registrar and Assistant Registrar

            The President shall appoint an officer of the public service to be Registrar of Brands and may appoint an officer of the public service to be Assistant Registrar of Brands who, subject to the directions of the Registrar, shall have the power to do any act or thing which may lawfully be done under this Act by the Registrar.

12.     Register of brands

            The Registrar shall keep a register of all brands and the proprietors thereof registered under the provisions of this Act.

13.     Form of brands to be registered under this Act

            (1) Every brand, other than an AC brand, registered under this Act shall consist of three characters of which-

     (a)     two shall be letters and one a numeral; or

     (b)     two shall be numerals and one a letter; or

     (c)     all three shall be letters,

and shall be in the form of a horizontal line, a vertical line, a pyramid or an inverted pyramid.

            (2) Every AC brand registered under this Act shall consist of the letters "A" and "C" and two numerals, and shall be in the form of a diamond.

            (3) No brand shall be registered under this Act which is identical with a registered brand or which, in the opinion of the Registrar, so nearly resembles a registered brand as to be likely to mislead.

            (4) Notwithstanding anything in subsection (1), if the President is satisfied that additional brands, other than an AC brand, are required, he may, by statutory instrument, make an order to authorise the registration of such additional composition and forms of brands as may be prescribed by the President under this section.

14.     Registration of brand

            (1) A person requiring a brand shall make application to the Registrar stating particulars of the brand required and such other particulars as may be prescribed.

            (2) No person other than an authorized creditor may make application for the registration of an AC brand.

            (3) Subject to the provisions of section 13, the Registrar, on payment of the prescribed fee, shall register the particular brand applied for or if it is already a registered brand shall register a brand which is not a registered brand, and shall register the applicant as proprietor of such brand and thereupon the brand so registered shall be the brand of the applicant and the Registrar shall issue him with a certificate to that effect in such form as the Accountant-General may determine.

15.     Removal of illegal brands from register

            If through inadvertence or otherwise a registered brand does not comply with the provisions of section 13(2) or (3), the Registrar, after giving to the proprietor an opportunity to be heard, shall-

     (a)     cancel the registration of the brand, whereupon all the proprietor's rights in or to that brand shall cease; and

     (b)     register another brand in the name of the proprietor in accordance with the provisions of section 14(3) but without payment of fee.

16.     Brand to lapse after 10 years unless renewed

            Subject to any directions to the contrary given by the Minister either generally or in any specific case, all rights in or to any brand registered under section 14 or 15 or renewed under section 17 shall lapse and the Registrar shall cancel the registration thereof on the expiration of 10 years from the date of such registration or renewal or the date of any transfer thereof under section 20, whichever be the later, unless the registration has been renewed or further renewed, as the case may be, in accordance with the provisions of section 17.

17.     Renewal of registration of brand

            The proprietor of any registered brand may at any time within 12 months of the date on which the registration is due to lapse apply to the Registrar for the renewal or further renewal, as the case may be, of the registration and the Registrar, on payment of the prescribed fee, shall thereupon renew the registration of the brand and shall issue the proprietor with a certificate to that effect in such form as the Accountant-General may prescribe.

18.     Brand directory

            (1) As soon as possible after the commencement of this Act, the Registrar shall cause to be prepared a directory of registered brands other than AC brands and thereafter, as soon as possible after the 1st day of January in every succeeding year, shall cause an up-to-date revised edition of or supplement to that directory to be prepared.

            (2) The Registrar shall cause to be prepared and published in the Gazette a directory of all registered AC brands and of any brand registered in the name of the National Development Bank on 1st January and 1st June in each year and shall cause an up-to-date directory of such brands to be prepared and published in the Gazette.

            (3) Every directory or any revised edition or supplement thereof shall contain prescribed particulars of each registered brand included therein.

            (4) Copies of every directory, revised edition or supplement thereof prepared in terms of this Act shall be on sale to members of the public at a price to be determined by the President and the fact of publication and the price per copy shall be notified in the Gazette.

19.     Surrender of brands

            The proprietor of any registered brand or, if he is dead, his legal representative, may surrender the same and the Registrar, on receipt of notice thereof, shall cancel the registration of the brand, whereupon all rights in or to that brand shall as regards that proprietor cease:

            Provided that no registration of any AC brand registered in the name of an association established under the Agricultural Management Associations Act, shall be cancelled unless the notice of surrender is supported by an affidavit shown by an officer of that association that no property of the association is pledged as security whether under the Agricultural Charges Act, the Hypothecation Act or otherwise.

20.     Transfer of brands

            The Registrar, on application made in the prescribed form by the proprietor of a registered brand or, if he is dead, by his legal representative, and on payment of the prescribed fee, may register some other person to be proprietor of the brand and thereupon the brand shall be the brand of that other person and the Registrar shall issue him with a certificate to that effect in such form as the Accountant-General may determine:

            Provided that no AC brand shall be transferred except to another authorized creditor.

21.     Re-issue of brands

            (1) No AC brand the registration of which has been cancelled shall be re-issued.

            (2) No brand which is not an AC brand and of which the registration has been cancelled shall be re-issued until a period of 10 years has elapsed from the date of cancellation.

22.     Manner of branding cattle

            (1) Every registered brand other than an AC brand shall be branded on cattle as follows-

     (a)     the first brand shall be imprinted on the left thigh immediately above a line drawn horizontally through the stifle joint and every subsequent brand shall, where there is sufficient space for the purpose, be imprinted on the same part of the animal and immediately below the last brand;

     (b)     where there is not sufficient space for any subsequent brand then other parts of the animal shall be used in the order set out in the following table, each part being used until there is not sufficient space for any further brand on that part, and each second or subsequent brand on any part being imprinted immediately below the previous brand on that part-

      (i)     Right thigh                

      (ii)     Left forearm

     (iii)     Right forearm

first brand on each part shall be imprinted immediately above a line drawn horizontally through the stifle joint or point of the elbow as the case may be.

            (2) Every registered AC brand shall be imprinted on the right forearm; the first such brand shall be imprinted immediately above a line drawn horizontally through the point of the elbow and every subsequent such brand shall be imprinted immediately below the previous AC brand:

            Provided that the order in which AC brands are imprinted shall not prejudice the rights of priority as between different liens incurred whether under the Hypothecation Act, the Agricultural Charges Act or otherwise.

            (3) A registered AC brand on an animal shall be cancelled by a reversed imprint of such brand placed immediately below the last AC brand imprinted on such animal.

            (4) Any person who brands cattle otherwise than with a zonal symbol or who wilfully fails to comply with the provisions of this section shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding P50 or, in default of payment thereof, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month.

            (5) Notwithstanding anything in subsection (1), the President, if satisfied that in particular circumstances the imprinting on animals of any particular class of brands additional to registered brands imprinted under the provisions of subsection (1) and zonal symbols imprinted under the provisions of section 6(1) would be warranted, may by order published in the Gazette, authorize the imprinting in such circumstances of such additional brands, whether registered or not, on the cheek of animals of such class.

23.     Penalty for use of unregistered brand

            A person who brands any cattle with a brand other than a registered brand or zonal symbol or a brand authorized under the provisions of section 22(5) shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding P200 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to both.

24.     Penalty for defacing or altering brand

            Any person who, without lawful cause or excuse, blotches, defaces or otherwise renders illegible or in any way alters any registered brand branded on cattle shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding P1200 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years, or to both.

25.     Penalty for unauthorized branding

            Any person who, without lawful cause or excuse, brands any cattle of which he is not the owner with a registered brand without the authority of the owner of the cattle shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding P1200 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years, or to both.

26.     Brand prime facie proof of ownership in case of stock theft

            Without prejudice to any rights of the National Development Bank under the Agricultural Charges Act or of an authorized creditor or the National Development Bank under the Hypothecation Act, on the trial of any person for any offence referred to in section 6 of the Stock Theft Act in relation to any cattle or the hide of any cattle, the fact that the cattle or hide is branded with the registered brand of the person alleged to be the owner thereof shall be prima facie evidence that the cattle or hide is the property of such person.