Joanna Lumley has launched Compassion in World Farming's 2012 push against long distance live animal transport. She unveiled the charity's new national bus advertising campaign.

The bus adverts

The event launched a series of bus adverts which were the result of winning the CBS Outdoor Big Bus Challenge last year. The competition was for the design of an advert, with a £200,000 bus campaign as the prize. Our adverts, designed by Elvis Communications, are being used to highlight the resurgence in live exports from this country, and the situation across the world.

Why now?

In 2011, the number of calf and sheep exports from Britain to the continent increased three-fold to more than 80,000.

At the event Joanna Lumley addressed the media saying:

"The numbers involved in live exports is shocking. We need to act on this ghastly trade now. 2012 is an auspicious year. This is the year for change!

"We ask farmers to please find alternatives and we need to make it more lucrative for them to slaughter their animals closer to home. Ask your MEP to enforce an 8 hour limit and stop and think about your food and where it comes from. I urge you all to take more responsibility."

You can help

According to Freedom of Information responses from Defra, the only port used for exports to the continent as of May last year was Ramsgate, Kent. We are calling on the authorities there to raise the price they charge.

Compassion supporters can write to Thanet District Council, the home of Ramsgate port, and ask them to raise their port fees.

Joyce D'Silva, Compassion's Director of Public Affairs called on British farmers to abandon the export trade, saying "Good farmers want to know the fate of their animals when they leave the farm. Compassion calls on the farmers who still export their animals to find a market for them in the UK and spare them the horrors of the live export trade. We also urge the government to fight hard at the negotiating table in Brussels to set much shorter maximum journey times for animals in transit, preferably no more than 8 hours."

Take action:

• Write to Thanet District Council and ask them to raise the fees they charge animal exporters at Ramsgate port