Inspectors checking live animal exports out of the port of Ramsgate have found a lorry load of sheep with no drinking water.

The RSPCA joined staff from Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) on the docks yesterday.

They discovered a faulty pump meaning hundreds of sheep had no access to drinking water.

A warning notice was then issued and the pump was repaired at the port before the lorry continued its journey to Calais and then Holland.

Dr Julia Wrathall, head of the RSPCA’s farm animals science team, said: “Drinking water is one of the essential basics that sheep, or any animals, need during a journey which potentially can be long and hot.

“It’s very concerning that a lorry transporting live animals abroad had a faulty water pump but it's a relief that this was rectified so quickly.

“This breach of welfare rules highlights the need for better enforcement across Europe and a maximum eight hour journey time to help reduce the risk of animals suffering unnecessarily during transportation.”

It comes after the European Commission rejected a petition signed by more than a million people and almost 400 MEPs calling for a maximum eight hour journey time.

It was accepted by the European Parliament but rejected by the Commission because it does not meet the requirements of the citizens initiative.

David Bowles, a spokesperson for the RSPCA, said: “More than a million people feel passionately, like the RSPCA, that animals going for slaughter or further fattening should not have to endure journeys of more than eight hours long.

“It is astounding and arrogant that the Commission is ignoring such a groundswell of public feeling and rejecting the petition on a technicality."