Animal trade attacked by police chairman

The ending of the export trade in live animals was called for yesterday by the chairman of the police authority that only hours before had broken the blockade of the port of Shoreham in West Sussex, by animal rights campaigners.

The protest was quashed in the early hours of Thursday morning with more than 1,000 police officers at a cost of £150,000.

The huge police presence made any effective protest against the trade impossible. The trucks carrying the animals were smuggled in through a back entrance protected by two dozen police riot vans.

The Sussex police authority's chairman, David Bellotti, said: "I think the trade is barbaric but that's not my main concern here.

"I'm more concerned about the increase in burglaries in Shoreham for something that most people don't agree with.

"I think it's a question of something being legal doesn't necessarily make it right. In this case it clearly isn't."

Mr Bellotti called for a meeting with the port authority, exporters and farmers to discuss ending the trade through Shoreham.

"It's not a question of one side winning or losing. I want to sit down with these people and ask whats happening and why we need so many officers to uphold the peace."

If the traders and the port do not agree to end the business Mr Bellotti, a Liberal Democrat member of East Sussex County Council, said he would be examining ways to put pressure on them to relent.

"If the port is not willing to co-operate with local people then they will not get any co-operation back," he said.

Because of the civil unrest caused by clashes between protestors and hauliers, Compassion in World Farming, one of the organisers of the protests, decided on Wednesday to temporarily pull-out from the Shoreham demonstrations until the situation had calmed down.

It also claimed yesterday that 40 calves died during the journey to Dieppe in France, the first crossing of the new route for the livestock traders.

John Callaghan, a spokesman for Compassion in World Farming, said: "While there's such a massive force there, peaceful protest is impossible.

``The police made it quite clear that they were not going to stand for any form of protest and if anyone got in the way they would have to face the consequences.''

Other groups and individuals are laying plans to renew the blockade of the port.

Dave Clarke, 55, a resident of nearby Hove, has organised a telephone tree to get hundreds to the port at short notice.

He said: "We take the view that they can't bring that number of police down here every night but we will continue and we'll always be down here.''

Philip Lacey, general manager of the port, said he welcomed the strong police presence.

He said "A main concern of the police is to avoid public disorder and on this occasion they obviously felt this was a way to achieve that."

New strategies to "demolish" the trade are also being prepared by Respect For Animals, the group which organised the passenger boycott that forced the major ferry companies to abandon the trade.