Protest march over calf exports

Carla Lane joined the protesters to march in the rain through Dover

Hundreds of animal rights campaigners have marched through Dover to protest against the export of live veal calves, after the lifting of a 10-year ban.

Waving placards, blowing whistles and beating drums, the protesters paraded through the Kent town, from where the first cargo of calves sailed on Friday.

Marchers included members of Bristol vegetarian group Viva!, the RSPCA and Compassion in World Farming (CIWF).

They were joined by screenwriter Carla Lane, who runs an animal sanctuary.

Former MEP Stanley Johnson, Boris Johnson's father, who is a long-standing member of CIWF, addressed the crowd.

The first shipment of live calves left Dover's Eastern Docks in the early hours of Friday aboard the cargo ship, MV Toucan.

If followed Wednesday's lifting of a 10-year cattle export ban imposed in the wake of BSE.

Protesters against animal cruelty marched through Dover

The British beef industry has said renewed exports to Europe could see a return to the £650m-a-year trade levels from before the BSE outbreak.

But protesters say renewed live cattle exports will expose animals to unnecessary suffering on long journeys.

They may also end up in veal crates, banned in the UK, in which they have no room to turn round.

"It's a miserable fate and we have come out today to show the government and the public that we are disgusted that this trade has started again," campaign manager Toni Vernelli told protesters before the march.

Ms Lane, whose sanctuary is in Horsted Keynes, West Sussex, said: "This is the thing that keeps me awake at night.

The campaigners are against the use of veal crates

"It's just awful. To think that new calves are going out, it's so obscene to take a baby from its mother, to cram them in a truck and take it on a ship and then to drive it for miles to be put in a little crate.

"It's a cruel, terrible trade. I don't know how the government can ignore our voice. There are millions of people against this trade."

The lifting of the ban means live cattle born on or after 1 August 1996 can be exported, along with beef from cattle slaughtered on or after 15 June, 2005.

Restrictions remain in place for beef containing vertebral material and for beef sold on the bone.

The use of veal crates is already banned in the UK and is set to be stopped across the EU from 1 January 1, 2007.

The National Farmers' Union has called on British exporters not to send animals to buyers in Europe where veal crates are still in use.