Animals Australia has claimed a win in its battle against the live export industry.

The Advertising Standards Board has dismissed a case brought by Livestock South Australia, to remove the animal rights group's advertisements on buses and billboards.

The advertising campaign showed an image of an Australian bull in distress at the 2013 Eid al-Adha, Muslim Festival of Sacrifice, in Mauritius, along with a slogan reading: 'Live Export; It's a crime against animals'.

The advertisements ran until December in all major cities in Australia and received numerous complaints from livestock producers in South Australia.

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Geoff Power, president of farmer group Livestock SA, lobbied the State Government on behalf of producers to remove the advertisements.

"I don't know what people in the city would think, but live export isn't a crime, it's quite legal and it's done with strict animal welfare guidelines," Mr Power said.

Complaints against the advertisement claimed they caused alarm and distress, including distress to children, that they portrayed cruelty to animals and were not within the prevailing community standards.

"The main feedback was absolute disgust, because they're portraying something that isn't right," Mr Power said.

"It isn't a crime. The live export industry is an industry that is quite legal, it's got high animal welfare standards."

Complaints dismissed

Complaints that the advertisements were out of line with community standards were dismissed under Section 2 of the Advertiser Code of Ethics.

In its final statement, the Advertising Standards Board noted the slogan used in the campaign by Animals Australia would need to be assessed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and not the advertising regulator.

"The board noted that issues of truth and accuracy fall under Section 1 of the Code of Ethics, and these complaints should be directed to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission," the statement read.

Animals Australia said it was not aware of a case filed against it with the ACCC.

Primary producers who submitted complaints against the advertisement expressed concern about false publicity the livestock industry may have received nationwide because of the campaign.

In a complaint to the Advertising Standards Board, an anonymous farmer said the claims made by the animal rights group were inaccurate regarding live export being a crime.

"This is an agenda thrust upon the general public, regardless of age, by a vegan minority, claiming our legitimate business trade is a crime," the complaint read.

"I produce livestock and sell into foreign markets, both live and chilled.

"Australia was shown to be 99 per cent compliant in ESCAS [Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System] regulations overseas and improving welfare standards on a global scale.

"It is not a crime as is stated, but endorsed by both major political parties," the farmer wrote in the complaint.

Campaign finished in December

Mr Power said he had received assurances that the campaign, which was displayed on public transport, had been removed after a formal compliant to the South Australian State Government by Livestock SA.

However, Animals Australia said the campaign finished at its intended date in December.

An Animals Australia spokesperson was not available for comment about concerns raised by livestock producers, but the organisation told ABC Rural in a statement the advertisement did not misrepresent cruelty in the live export industry.

"We became aware in September that Livestock SA was lobbying the Government to have our live export advertising removed from buses," the statement from Animals Australia read.

"However, the media company stood by the campaign. This meant the ads ran their full course and stayed up as planned until December, when they were due to come down anyway.

"We're now developing the next phase of this campaign and this incident won't have any impact on our future plans."

Animals Australia said it would launch new advertisements for 2016 at the end of February, but did not elaborate on whether it would be a nationwide campaign across all major cities.