Protesters are preparing to gather at the Port of Ramsgate tonight as live animal exports resume.

It will be the first shipment to leave the port since March and dozens of Kent Association Against Live Exports (KAALE) campaigners are expected to gather at the port entrance as transporters arrive.

Up to five transporters are due to travel through the port for transfer to Calais and beyond on the former Russian troop barge Joline.

Ian Birchall, KAALE chairman, said: “It has been four months since the last shipment as it seems the demand hasn’t been there recently but there should be around 50 to 60 protesters joining us.

“Inspectors from the RSPCA will also be there to monitor the arrivals.”

A temporary ban on live animal exports from Ramsgate was put in place after the death of more than 40 sheep at the port in September 2012.

Two French lorry drivers were arrested on suspicion of animal cruelty after a lorry was declared unfit to travel across the Channel.

The lorry was found to have faults and the sheep were unloaded to a holding pen while an alternative truck was found.

Two sheep, one with a broken leg, were put down and more than 40 other sheep also had to be shot after a vet found they were severely lame.

In a further tragedy, sheep were loaded into an area where the floor then collapsed – six sheep fell into the water and four were rescued by nearby RSPCA officers, but two of the animals drowned.

The same lorry had been declared unfit to travel the previous month and had had two further failures during other visits.

The authority lifted its temporary ban after legal advice and the RSPCA made a bid for a judicial review of the arrangements for the export of livestock from Ramsgate in December 2013 but the review was ruled out by a High Court judge in March 2014, allowing trade to begin again.

Live exports have been taking place from the council-owned port since May 2011.