(1) Any cattle or other livestock owner, who uses or desires to use and adopt a brand or mark to identify his livestock must register his brand or mark by making application for such registration to the Department of Agriculture and Commerce. Not only all livestock owners who have their cattle branded before this law goes into effect must apply for registration, but also those persons who desire to brand or mark their livestock for the first time must apply for registration, and submit their proposed brand or mark to the department for clearing before it is applied. The application shall be made on forms prescribed and furnished by the department, which application shall be accompanied by a fee of Five Dollars ($5.00) and a facsimile of the brand or mark or proposed brand or mark to be registered shall also be furnished by the applicant. All fees collected hereunder for registration, transfer, or reregistration of brands or marks shall be deposited in the State Treasury. If the brand or mark described in the application has not previously been registered by another cattle owner, or does not closely resemble a registered brand or mark, the department shall approve the application, register the brand or mark in the name of the applicant, and issue to the applicant a certificate of registration. In case of duplication of brands or marks as shown by applications, the owner of the brand or mark who first records with the department will be recognized. When a livestock owner, who has registered a brand or mark with the department, transfers such brand or mark to another person, he shall immediately notify the department of the transfer, giving the date of transfer, and the name and address of the transferee. Upon receipt of the notice and a transfer fee of Two Dollars ($2.00), the department shall cause such transfer to be noted in the register of brands and marks, and such brand or mark shall not be used by the new owner until permission has been given by the department for the use of such brand or mark.

(2) No two (2) or more brands or marks of the same design or figure, and no two (2) or more earmarks of the same kind shall be adopted, designed and recorded, and when a brand, mark or earmark shall have been designed, adopted and recorded, the person so adopting and recording same shall be entitled to the exclusive use thereof, and it shall be his exclusive property, but the right to the use of such brand or mark may be sold and transferred by an instrument in writing, signed, acknowledged and recorded in the chancery clerk’s office of the county where the brand, mark or earmark is recorded. When the right to the use of a brand, mark or earmark has been sold and transferred and recorded as herein provided, the chancery clerk shall note on the “brand, mark and earmark book” that such brand, mark or earmark has been sold and transferred, giving the book and page where such transfer is recorded.

(3) Any person who shall violate any of the provisions of subsection (2) of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction therefor, shall be punished by a fine of not less than One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) nor more than Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00), and by imprisonment in the county jail not less than thirty (30) days nor more than six (6) months. Any person convicted of stealing livestock is subject to the penalties provided in Section 97-17-53.