Animal Welfare campaigners in Kent have organised a large protest against the export of live animals from Ramsgate, a practice they believe is inhumane. Around 600 demonstrators attended the protest on Sunday to mark the year anniversary of live exports from the port, which initially stopped fourteen years ago but resumed in 2011 following damage to loading equipment at Dover.

In November, following an election victory, Labour councillors in Ramsgate gave their support to the campaigners calling for an end to live exports from the port. Since May last year groups of protestors have staged regular demonstrations.

The protesters state that the older equipment at Ramsgate and the single ship servicing the livestock trade are unsuitable for animal transport and result in unnecessary suffering.

Local groups Thanet Against Live Exports (TALE) and Kent Action Against Live Exports (KAALE) have been supported in their campaign by farm animal welfare charity Compassion in World Farming and the RSPCA, whose officers recently descended on the port to conduct animal welfare inspections of trucks carrying animals to the port.

Though the NFU has refused to condemn the practice, claiming there is nothing “morally wrong” about the live exports, Compassion in World Farming spokesperson has suggested that the weight of support for the welfare campaigners means the end of live exports from Ramsgate is “not a matter of if, but of when.”

There have been calls from animal welfare groups to limit the time animals can legally be transported to eight hours and a series of advertisments were placed on busses in cities across the UK, funded by Compassion in World Farming earlier this year. These calls have been picked up by MEPs; at a recent meeting in Brussels which focused on animal welfare improvements in the bloc, parliamentarians pledged to introduce new regulations that would improve not only journey time, but also conditions and handling of livestock.

The MEPs also called for more of a focus to be placed on creating sustainable local food webs, which would reduce the need for long distance transport and stimulate rural growth.

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