HUNDREDS of calves and lambs could be spared a Christmas spent crammed inside trucks as live animals exports from Ramsgate are called off until the new year.

So far there have been shipments involving an estimated 53,123 sheep and 7,717 calves since export resumed from the Thanet council-owned port in May.

For the last two weeks no shipments of calves or lambs have left the Port of Ramsgate due to bad weather. Now campaigners say they do not anticipate any until January.

Ian Birchall, from Kent Against Live Animals Exports (KAALE), said he had been told the information from a confidential source within the industry, said: "These really are tidings of great joy. It is brilliant news. Such is the vagrancy of this trade that the animals faced being taken always to places like Belgium only to be slaughtered and in some cases brought back to the UK.

"This will at least be a reprieve for the animals who will have been bought for the export market.

"They still face being slaughtered but at least perhaps it will be in the UK and they will be spared the horrific journey across the Channel."

A petition demanding an eight-hour limit for animal exports is now just 20,000 signatures short of the one million figure needed to force the European Commission to consider a change in legislation.

Yesterday, Catherine Bearder, a Liberal Democrat MEP for the South East, was due to meet with campaigners in Ramsgate to help hit the target before the petition's deadline next month.

She said: "It is unacceptable to inflict on animals the degree of discomfort caused by long journeys. We must end this cruel practice and by getting one million people to sign up to the petition."

Ian Driver, founder of Thanet Against Live Exports (TALE), has been involved with the campaign since June 2011.

He said: "It's really encouraging that almost one million people across Europe have signed the petition and shows how strongly people feel about the issue."