Protests against the shipping of live animals from the Republic are to be intensified by Compassion in World Farming, the animal welfare organisation, it was announced in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork.
The organisation yesterday placed a token picket on the port where a new shipping service using the roll-on/roll-off ferry, The Venus, was loading for a trip to St Malo in France.
The cargo included live animals.
Ms Aoife Ni Fhearghail, the CIWF campaigns officer, said that it will be asking travellers to use another shipping service should the company, Swansea Cork Ferries, continue to carry live animals.
She said the company intended to carry passengers, freight and live animals on the new route three times weekly and this appeared to represent a major turnaround on its part.
In 1994, she said, the company had told CIWF that it did not carry live cattle for slaughter and had not done so in the past and it wished the organisation well in its campaign.
Ms Ni Fhearghail said that CIWF had written to the company seeking clarification of the matter and if this was unsatisfactory, it may consider picketing the company's Cork offices and asking passengers to consider not using the ferry.
However, the introduction of the new service was welcomed by the Irish Farmers' Association, which said the ship had the capacity to take 10 loads of livestock on each of its three sailings weekly, or up to 2,500 animals.
Mr Raymond O'Malley, chairman of the IFA's national livestock committee, said the new ferry service was a tremendous injection to the live export trade to Europe as the peak autumn weanling disposal period approached.
Live exports to Europe this year, he said, had the potential to reach between 350,000 and 400,000 animals, provided no restrictions were placed on the trade.
The Department of Agriculture and Food, which has made a commitment to supporting live exports, said The Venus had been inspected and given permission to carry cattle subject to a series of conditions. A veterinary surgeon would be travelling with the first shipment.
There has been a huge growth in live exports this year - so far they have soared to 190,000, more than double last year's total.