OFFICIALS say an online petition is the best way to halt live animal exports from Ramsgate.

Thanet council leader Bob Bayford is urging campaigners to sign the e-petition and has added a link to it from the council's website.

Councillors agreed to support the petition after a debate and a narrowly won vote last month.

Mr Bayford said: "We have looked at legal ways of preventing this use of the port, but none of these have worked.

"We know that, in the past, other organisations have taken legal action against the live animal export trade, but they have lost, leaving them with huge costs and damages.

"I am lobbying central government as this is the best legal way to bring about change and would encourage people to sign the petition in support."

The e-petition, which started last month, calls on the Government to review the 1847 Harbours, Docks and Piers Clauses Act and give port owners the right to refuse the shipment of live animals overseas.

The petition has now attracted nearly 5,000 signatures but needs 100,000 if it is to be debated in Parliament.

Labour councillor Ian Driver, who started the petition, sparked the council debate after proposing that it should be actively promoted.

He said: "I have to say I am relieved the petition has gone online, I almost thought the council had forgotten what had been decided.

"It really is great news. I think we have made a lot of headway now the council is doing something practical to alert people to the issue."

Live animals have been exported from Ramsgate since May, angering campaigners who say it is cruel because animals face long journeys before they are slaughtered.

Last week Thanet South MP Laura Sandys raised the issue in Parliament and called on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to investigate operators of the Lithuanian export ship Joline.

A public meeting about live animal exports takes place at the Queens Road Baptist Church in Broadstairs on Saturday, November 26 at 12.30pm. Speakers include Thanet South MP Laura Sandys, South East Green Party MEP Keith Taylor and David Bowles from the RSPCA. There will also be a speaker from Compassion In World Farming.

To sign the petition go to www.thanet.gov.uk and click on the link "Government E-petition."