Thousands of Australians have gathered at Port Adelaide to protest exports of live animals.

More than 66,000 sheep from the crippled live sheep ship MV Al Messilah will be reloaded today for the Middle East, ignoring protests from animal protection groups.

The MV Al Shuwaikh has arrived in Port Adelaide to reload the sheep. During the 10 days the sheep languished aboard the Al Messilah, hundreds died of hunger. The sheep will now face a further 17- to 20-day shipboard journey to the Middle East, where the surviving animals will be slaughtered whilst fully conscious.

Animals Australia Executive Director Glenys Oogjes said the exporter revealed the industry's cruelty by refusing to slaughter the stranded sheep in Australia.

"Instead, these poor animals will once again be subjected to the stress of cramped shipboard transportation and the hazards of the open ocean," she said. “Due to the already excessive handling, they will be more vulnerable to the ever-present shipboard killers of inanition (starvation) and salmonella infections; the cause of most of the 27,000 onboard sheep deaths in 2010. This debacle gave Australians a further glimpse into the unacceptable risks inherent to the live export trade."

Oogjes said the failure to show the animals any mercy and place them at risk all over again gives Australians another reason to be appalled by this trade.