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Ramsgate animal export ban was unlawful, says judge

[ February 28, 2014   //   ]

The High Court ruled on 27 February that a ban imposed by Thanet District Council on live animal exports through Ramsgate in September 2012 was unlawful, the BBC reported. Mr Justice Birss said the council, which owns the port, would now have to pay damages to the three companies affected, Barco de Vapor, Onderwater Agneaux and Johannes Quirinius Wouterius Maria Onderwater. The amount of the damages has yet to be decided.

The Council suspended exports after an incident in which over 40 sheep died, but the judge said that this breached free trade rules. He said that while the animal export trade was not popular, the law does not only exist to protect the interests of the popular.”

Earlier in February, Thomas Lomas, the boss of Kent company Channel Livestock, admitted transporting the animals in a way likely to cause undue suffering. He was given a six-month prison sentence suspended for two years and ordered to pay £5,000 costs by Dover magistrates.

The live animal trade on the Joline vessel has since been moved from Ramsgate to Dover.

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