CAMPAIGNERS opposing live animal exports from the Port of Ramsgate have taken their grievances to animal welfare authorities.

Protesters were due to meet with representatives of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and animal welfare officials from Kent County Council in Ashford yesterday (Thursday).

District councillor and protest organiser Ian Driver said: "I have been trying to fix this meeting for a long time so that we can put our long list of concerns directly to the people responsible for policing animal welfare in Kent."

Since live animal exports from Ramsgate resumed in May, protesters have been targeting the lorries taking cows and sheep to the Continent for slaughter.

Protester Reg Bell, from Westgate, said one of the group's main concerns is whether the ship Joline, which transports the live animals, is safe and EU-compliant. He added: "We are also very worried about the lack of emergency provision for the animals to feed and rest if their transport is stopped from boarding the ship and turned back.

"This has happened twice now and the animals have been forced to endure a four-hour journey back to the nearest official stopover in Gloucester.

"We believe that Kent County Council is legally obliged to make arrangements for an official stopover point near to Ramsgate to avoid any unnecessary suffering for animals turned around."

Mr Driver said he had been informed by Defra that it only checks one third of animal transporters going through the port.

He added: "This is simply not good enough. Almost every time there is a shipment we see massively overcrowded trailers and sometimes we have seen sheep with their limbs sticking out of the trailer sides.

"There must be 100 per cent checks to stop distressed and overcrowded animals from being shipped overseas in cruel and miserable conditions."

So far the campaign to stop live exports has received support from the RSPCA, Thanet South MP Laura Sandys and South East MEP Peter Skinner.

An e-petition calling on the Government to review the 1847 Harbours, Docks and Piers Clauses Act and give port owners the right to refuse shipment of live animals overseas has been set up at http://epetitions.direct. gov.uk/petitions/16024