§ 4. Marks, etc., deemed abandoned. At the termination of three months after final publication of notice set forth in section one, the county recorders of the several counties shall transfer the records of all marks, brands and counterbrands perpetuated under section three to a new book set apart for the purpose described in section three thousand one hundred sixty-eight of the Political Code, and all marks, brands and counterbrands in the custody of the county recorders of the several counties not so continued and perpetuated shall be deemed to have been abandoned by the owner thereof and to be inoperative and void. § 5. Sections of Political Code not affected by act. Nothing in this act shall be construed as repealing sections three thousand one hundred sixty-eight and three thousand one hundred sixty-nine of the Political Code. Act 4638. An act to provide for the registration of brands and earmarks, the licensing and regulating of cattle slaughterers and sellers of meat; prescribing duties of the department of agriculture in relation thereto, and penalties for the violation hereof. [Approved June 3, 1921. Stats. 1921, p. 1248. In effect August 2, 1921.] § 1. Title of act. § 2. § 3. § 5. Enforcement by director of agriculture. ObliteratRecorded brands and marks. Adopting mark or brand. Recording mark or brand. Districts. Fee. Transfer. ing brand. § 4. Inspection of cattle. Inspection of carcasses. Inspection fee. Issuing certificate without inspection. Tagging. Charge. License to slaughter or sell animal. Slaughter-house license. Fees. Location. Forfeiture of license. Revocation of license. Records. Record of retailer. Sale to retailer without license. Slaughtering for own consumption. Slaughtering calves. Report of slaughterer. Tagging hides. Inspection before slaughter. § 6. § 7. § 8. Estrays. § 9. § 10. § 1. Recordation of marks and brands. Report of moneys. Title of act. This act shall be known as the hide and brand law. § 2. Enforcement by director of agriculture. The director of agriculture is hereby authorized and it is made his duty to enforce the provisions of this act and to exercise a general supervision over and protect the cattle of this state from theft, and to make such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this act. He shall appoint a secretary, counsel and such hide and brand inspectors and other employees and clerks as may be necessary for this purpose and fix the salaries of such appointees. The salaries and expenses of appointees, including other additional expenses incurred in the enforcement of this act, as hereinafter provided, shall be paid out of the cattle protection fund, which fund is hereinafter provided. All rules and regulations made under this act shall be promulgated in a proclamation under the seal of the department of agriculture, and shall be published in one or more stock journals of general circulation in § 3. Recorded brands and marks. 1. It shall be unlawful to brand and earmark any cattle with a brand and earmark unless said brand and mark shall be recorded and not forfeited under the provisions of this act. 2. Adopting mark or brand. Any person owning cattle in this state, except as hereinafter provided, may adopt a brand and earmark with which to brand and mark his cattle; provided, such brand and mark be not the same or similar to the brand and mark heretofore adopted by any other person, except by special permit issued by said director. Said brands and marks must be recorded by the director of agriculture. 3. Recording mark or brand. Recording a brand and mark shall consist of depicting in the brand records a facsimile of the design of the brand adopted, a diagram denoting the manner of earmarking adopted, an entry of the name and address of the person adopting the same, the date of recordation, the place upon the animal where the brand is to be used, number of the district and the location of the range whereon such animals are to range. A brand and mark shall not be deemed similar if it is not recorded by any other person in the same or a contiguous district. Whenever the brand records on file with the state department of agriculture disclose evidence whereby the same or a similar brand and mark has been recorded by two or more persons in any one branding district, the director of agriculture may proceed to cause an investigation to be made, and hearing held, for the purpose of determining the rights of prior ownership in such brand and mark, and when in the judgment of the director of agriculture, prior ownership to such brand and mark has been fully established, the director shall cause the cancellation of any duplicated or recorded brand in such branding district. A brand and mark shall not be considered recorded unless all renewal fees due have been paid. 4. Districts. The director may divide the state into a number of districts. Such districts may be changed as often as may be necessary to avoid the recordation of a brand and earmark in any two contiguous districts. Earmarks may be recorded only with a brand. 5. Fee. The sum of two dollars shall be paid said director for the recordation of any brand and earmark; for the right to continue the use of said brand and of said earmark, under the provisions of this act, the owner thereof shall before the first day of January of each year after its recordation transmit to the said director the sum of one and onehalf dollars. Failure to make such payment shall forfeit the right to use said brand and earmark. When forfeited, said brand and earmark shall not be recorded by any other person until after the expiration of one year from the date of the forfeiture thereof. Provided that no brand used or to be used for the purpose of branding cattle shall be recorded by any county clerk or recorder of any county of this state until said band has been recorded under this act. 6. Transfer. No transferee of any mark and brand shall use such mark and brand until transfer thereof shall have been recorded in the office of the said director and the sum of one dollar paid therefor. 7. Obliterating brand. No person shall obliterate a brand on the hide of any bovine animal until such hide has been inspected and tagged. § 4. Inspection of cattle. Inspection of cattle shall consist of the examination of the same for marks and brands, and in the case of unbranded cattle, for natural marks, and the issuance of a certificate showing said brands and marks. The inspector, as he proceeds with the inspection, shall make a record showing the number, kind, age, sex, mark and brand of each animal inspected, name of owner or claimant, consignor and consignee. 2. Inspection of carcasses. Inspection of carcasses of cattle with the hides attached, and of hides, will be the same as for cattle, except such inspector before issuing a certificate of inspection shall tag the same with the official tag of the department of agriculture; provided, that the animals from which such hides were removed, or from which such carcasses were obtained, were not inspected at shipping point or place of slaughter within fifteen days prior to slaughter. 3. Inspection fee. The inspector shall make such inspection upon request of the shipper or slaughterer at the point of shipment prior to shipment or place of slaughter prior to slaughter as soon as practicable after being notified, and shall receive from the person in charge of the same for such inspection the sum of five cents for each animal, carcass or hide inspected before he shall issue a certificate of inspection therefor. 4. Issuing certificate without inspection. It shall be unlawful for any inspector or other employee to issue any certificate of inspection unless such inspection shall have been personally made by him and all inspection fees collected, or neglect or refuse to forward the original certificate of inspection and fees collected to the director of agriculture within fifteen days after said inspection has been made. 5. Tagging. Tagging shall consist of attaching the official tag of the department of agriculture to the left side of the neck of the hide, and when so attached, said tag shall be prima facie evidence of inspection. 6. Charge. No charge shall be made for the inspection of hides which have been previously inspected and tagged under the provisions of this act. § 5. License to slaughter or sell animal. 1. No person shall slaughter a bovine animal or offer for sale, barter or exchange the meat thereof, unless he shall have a license therefor issued in accordance with the provisions of this act, except as herein otherwise provided. a 2. Slaughter-house license. Every person slaughtering cattle as business shall do so in a designated slaughter-house. Before beginning business he must procure from the director a license to carry on such business and execute a bond to the state of California, in the penal sum of one thousand dollars to be approved by the director, conditioned that such person shall not slaughter, sell or expose for sale any cattle or the meat thereof, without first being the owner thereof, or being authorized so to do by such owner, and that in case he shall slaughter any cattle without being the owner, or so authorized by the owner, he shall, in addition to all other statutory penalties, pay therefor double the value of such animal. All amounts recovered on said bonds shall be paid as follows: One-half to the owner of such animal and the remaining one-half to the cattle protection fund. 3. Fees. Said director shall grant to every applicant who complies with the provisions of this act a license to slaughter cattle and sell the meat thereof for the unexpired portion of the current calendar year. Every applicant for such license shall pay to said director the following annual fee which shall be paid in advance: Applicants who slaughter less than ten head per month: five dollars per annum. Applicants who slaughter more than ten head and less than fifty head per month, ten dollars per annum. Applicants who slaughter more than fifty head, twenty-five dollars per annum. One-fourth of said fees shall be paid for a fractional quarter of a year. But in no case shall the fee be less than two dollars for a fractional part of the year. 4. Location. The applicant shall state in his application where his slaughter-house is located, and he shall not slaughter cattle at any other place. If a licensee desires to change the location of his slaughterhouse, he shall apply to said director to have his license transferred, and the director may reissue the license without additional charge. 5. Forfeiture of license. Upon failure of a licensee for a period of fifteen days to pay said fee, his license shall thereupon be forfeited and thereafter it shall be unlawful for him to slaughter cattle until a penalty of twenty-five dollars and fifty cents per day for every day the licensee slaughters cattle after the expiration of his license, is paid to the director and a new license issued. 6. Revocation of license. The director may revoke a license for a willful violation of any of the provisions hereof, after notice to the interested party and a hearing and a license so revoked shall not be reissued except upon the payment of a renewal fee of twenty-five dollars. 7. Records. Every slaughterer of cattle shall keep on file in his office for ninety days after slaughter, the original bill of sale and the certificate of inspection of all cattle slaughtered by him. 8. Record of retailer. Every peddler, or retailer of meats, purchasing the meat of any bovine animal, must enter in a book to be kept for that purpose and exhibit the same on demand, the name of the person from whom said meat was purchased or otherwise obtained, the date of said purchase, the quantity so purchased, and the time and place of the delivery thereof to him. No peddler, or retailer of meat, shall purchase the meat of a slaughtered bovine animal from any person not known to him to be licensed under the provisions of this act, or a regular wholesale dealer in meats with an established place of business. 9. Sale to retailer without license. No person not licensed as a slaughterer under this act shall give, sell, or deliver to any peddler of meats any part of the carcass of a bovine animal. This provision shall not apply to purchases from a regular wholesaler of meat having an established place of business. 10. Slaughtering for own consumption. Nothing in this act shall be so construed as to prohibit an owner of property, or a ranchman located on a definite property as a tenant, lessee or purchaser under contract, from slaughtering cattle in small numbers on said premises for his own consumption, and nothing herein shall be so construed as to prohibit MARKS AND BRANDS. such ranchmen from selling or giving away a portion of the meat thereof. 11. Slaughtering calves. Any person actually engaged in the dairy business or engaged in the raising of cattle may slaughter upon his own premises, any calves under eight months of age, actually produced by him, upon annual notification to the director of agriculture of his intention to slaughter such calves, and filing with the office of the director of agriculture a monthly report giving the number of calves slaughtered per month. 12. Report of slaughterer. Every licensed slaughterer shall at the end of each calendar month mail to the director a written report stating the total number of cattle inspected for marks and brands and slaughtered during the preceding month and showing in separate columns the number thereof that were: (a) calves under one year of age; (b) cows one year of age and over; (e) steers; (d) stags; (e) bulls; (f) number slaughtered on each date; (g) branded, and (h) unbranded cattle. § 6. Tagging hides. 1. The director shall adopt a device for tagging the hides the design of which may be changed from time to time at his option. 2. No person shall buy or sell a bovine animal, or the carcass of any bovine animal from which the hide has not been removed, or hide thereof, unless the seller give, and the buyer receive, at the time of the delivery of such animal, carcass of any bovine animal from which the hide has not been removed, or hide, a written bill of sale, giving the number, kind and marks and brands of each hide, carcass of any bovine animal from which the hide has not been removed, or animal, signed by the party giving the same and two subscribing witnesses who have been freeholders of the county for at least two years; provided, that no witness shall be necessary if each of the parties is known to the other to have been resident of the county for two years immediately preceding the date of sale. 3. The hides of all cattle slaughtered by the owner thereof, or removed from any cattle which have died from any cause shall be retained in the possession of the owner where the same may be inspected, with the brands attached thereto, and without any alteration or disfiguration thereof, until said hides are inspected and tagged. 4. Every ranchman, who so slaughters cattle on such premises, shall keep a record in a book to be kept for that purpose of all cattle so slaughtered by him, with a description thereof, including all the marks and brands of such slaughtered cattle, the date of slaughter, and shall at the end of each month, make a true and correct copy of such record and send the same by registered mail to the office of the director of agriculture, and he shall likewise exhibit the said record on demand of any inspector or peace officer. 5. It shall be unlawful to counterfeit or reuse the official tag adopted by the director of agriculture for tagging hides. 6. No person shall remove any tag from a hide within this state until after it has been partially tanned. 7. No person shall sell, give away, deliver, transport, buy, accept or receive the hide of any bovine animal within thirty days after the same |