NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY
1975 SESSION

CHAPTER 261
HOUSE BILL 370

AN ACT TO REWRITE ARTICLE 7 OF CHAPTER 80 OF THE GENERAL STATUTES RELATING TO CATTLE BRANDS AND MARKS.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  Article 7 of Chapter 80 is hereby repealed and a new Article to be designated as Article 7A is hereby enacted as follows:
"§ 80-57.  Purpose. — The purpose of this Article is to discourage livestock theft by allowing for the voluntary individual registration of brand marks for certain livestock.
"§ 80-58.  Definitions.
(1)	'Board'. The term 'Board' means the North Carolina Board of Agriculture.
(2)	'Commissioner'. The term 'Commissioner' means the Commissioner of Agriculture of the State of North Carolina.
(3)	'Brand'. The term 'brand' means an identification mark permanently affixed into the hide of livestock by a hot iron or an extremely cold brand known as a 'freeze brand'.
(4)	'Person'. The term 'person' means an individual, firm, company, association, partnership or corporation.
(5)	'Livestock'. The term 'livestock' means cattle, horses, ponies, mules, and asses.
"§ 80-59. Responsibility and authority. — The Commissioner shall record livestock brands and maintain a record of such brands pursuant to this Article. Such records shall be public and shall be prima facie evidence of ownership of livestock which is properly branded under this Article. The Commissioner shall authorize such agents within the North Carolina Department of Agriculture as he deems necessary to implement this Article.
Any person desiring the exclusive use of a brand shall make application to the Commissioner on forms prescribed by the Board. The transfer of ownership of a brand registration may be done only at the written request of the brand registrant of record. The Commissioner shall receive a fee of ten dollars ($10.00) for recording such transfer.
"§ 80-60.  No brands duplicated. — No brand shall be registered that is a reasonable facsimile of another registered brand or that will likely be confused with another brand registered under this Article.
"§ 80-61.  Rule and regulation authority. — The Board shall have authority to promulgate reasonable rules and regulations for implementation of this Article which shall include, but not be limited to, the location of and the size of brand marks.
"§ 80-62.  Fees for recording. — The Commissioner is authorized to collect a fee of twenty-five dollars ($25.00) for the recording of each new brand, or for re-recording of each brand, and shall issue one certified copy of each brand recording to the holder of said brand. Duplicate certificates of registration may be issued by the Commissioner upon payment of a fee of two dollars ($2.00). Revenues collected pursuant to this Article shall be deposited with the State Treasurer to the account of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture.
"§ 80-63.  Record of sales and slaughter. — Persons or agents selling or bartering or exchanging branded livestock in the State of North Carolina shall provide the purchaser or new owner with a bill of sale showing a reasonable facsimile of the brand on any and all livestock having a brand as defined in this Article. Such bills of sale shall be prima facie evidence of transfer of ownership of branded livestock. Slaughter facilities in the State of North Carolina shall affix to their normal records of receipt of livestock a reasonable facsimile of the brand on any branded livestock received by them. Such records shall be maintained for at least 12 months.
"§ 80-64.  Defacing prohibited. — No person may change, conceal, deface, disfigure or obliterate any brand previously branded, impressed, or marked on any livestock, or put his or any other brand upon or over any part of any brand previously branded or marked upon any livestock, and no person shall make or use any counterfeit of any brand of any other person.
"§ 80-65.  Re-recording. — Every brand recorded under this Article, in order to remain effective must be re-recorded with the Commissioner during the tenth year from its next previous recordation. Each person having a brand registered in the State of North Carolina shall be notified in writing by the Commissioner that said brand must be re-recorded to prohibit its disenrollment from the record of such brand maintained by the Commissioner.
"§ 80-66.  Violation a misdemeanor. — Any person who violates any provision of this Article or any rule or regulation of the Board promulgated hereunder shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof fined not less than fifty dollars ($50.00) nor more than five hundred dollars ($500.00) or imprisoned for not more than 60 days, or both fined and imprisoned, in the discretion of the court."
Sec. 2.  This act shall become effective on January 1, 1976, except G.S. 80-61, which shall become effective upon ratification.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 12th day of May, 1975.