The Government confirmed yesterday that the first shipments of sheep have already resumed from Belfast and the campaigners believe it is only a matter of days before more shipments will go from Dover.

Animal welfare workers are now focusing on a battered barn on the outskirts of Dover which they believe holds the key to secret plans by British farmers to restart the export of live animals to Europe. Campaigners against the live export trade, which was halted last year at the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Britain, have spotted an increase in ewes and rams being held in a barn on a farm near the port. "We suspect that this could be the start of the live export trade again," said a spokesman for Compassion in World Farming.

The EU has recently approved the resumption of the trade from Britain. This weekend the campaigners will be keeping a watch around the white cliffs for the ferry which could take the animals to France. They fear the sheep could be destined for the annual Eid-el-Kabir Muslim festival beginning on 22 February when they will be ritually slaughtered in fields on the outskirts of Paris.

"There would be a huge outcry against it," said Peter Stevenson, political director of CWF. "These are truly awful slaughter methods. Now they have resumed live exports from Belfast they could start again in Dover this weekend."

The British government has been placed in the embarrassing position of opposing live exports but having to countenance the practice to avoid upsetting the farmers, who have suffered during the foot and mouth outbreak.

The resumption of live exports would immediately bring a storm of protest down on Dover. A peaceful demonstration was led against the trade in London last week by a 1,000-strong CWF march.

Gwynn Prosser, the Labour MP for Dover, is leading cross-party calls in the Commons to stop the resumption of live exports. A former merchant seaman, Mr Prosser said he had first-hand knowledge of the suffering of the animals on board ship. "It is not just the long distances the animals travel. There was a sickening scene in which two lorry loads of sheep were left on the quayside in Calais for 24 hours without any water. The sheep were gasping for air," he said.

The main ports and all the main ferry companies refused to handle the live export of animals. The farmers hit back by hiring their own ferry, and the European Court overruled the ports, insisting that Dover had to allow the trade.

There have been attempts to improve the treatment of the animals en route but campaigners believe the suffering is still unacceptable. They are urging farmers to accept they could earn more by switching production to the home market. Their next move will be to urge rural affairs secretary Margaret Beckett to withdraw farm subsidies worth £350m from sheep producers who refuse to end the traffic in live animals.

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