Animal welfare activists monitor Dover docks with digital cameras
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• by Charles Young
Animal welfare protesters are using digital cameras to spy on livestock hauliers operating out of Dover docks.
From their position on the cliffs above Dover docks, members of the Protesters Animal Information Network (PAIN) have started gathering evidence of alleged malpractice and handing it over to the authorities.
The organisation, which is headed by the television writer Carla Lane, claims the new tactic will make it easier for the Ministry of Agriculture to prosecute hauliers.
Digital pictures can be sent directly to the Ministry's office in Tolworth via e-mail while the offences are actually being committed.
Last week the group sent four e-mail pictures of sheep that it claimed were being exported in a sick and lame condition, or missing half their fleece.
The maximum penalty for animal cruelty is a fine of 2,5,000 per animal or six months in prison.
However, a spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture says the pictures will not lead to any prosecutions by themselves. We need to corroborate them with the vets on the ground," he says. "But if people do report abuse we will always get someone to go down and look into it."