Liz Hamer: Wants to save Torrick

But Carmarthenshire County Council rejected the application on Tuesday afternoon, in the wake of safety fears from police and farmers' union officials.

Ms Hamer is now planning a media campaign to save Torrick's life, after official at his current home, Longleat Safari Park, said he was surplus to the requirements of a breeding programme.

"I have no intention of giving up - I intend to launch a campaign immediately to save Torrick," said Ms Hamer.

"If he cannot come to Wales then I shall have to find another location either somewhere else in the UK or abroad.

"I want to get as much public support behind the campaign as possible," she added.

No danger

Ms Hamer trained Torrick from birth during her time at Dartmoor Wildlife Park near Plymouth.

Statistically, you have a better chance of being attacked by a pig in the countryside than you ever would be by Torrick

Liz Hamer

She had also consulted her neighbours and even pledged to buy a shotgun in the event she was unable to control the animal.

And she argued that Torrick would not be a danger to the area.

"Statistically, you have a better chance of being attacked by a pig in the countryside than you ever would be by Torrick."

Biggest cat

While other possibilities for Torrick's future are being explored, Ms Hamer is concerned he will be destroyed if an alternative home is not found soon.

"I've already contacted zoos and wildlife parks all over in Britain and the situation will be very similar in Europe.

"This is typical of man - as soon as he no longer wants something it's thrown away, even if it happens to be a tiger."

Torrick's fellow Siberian tigers are the biggest of big cats.

But there are thought to be only around 406 left in the wild around the world, according to the Tiger Information Centre, while hundreds more are bred in captivity.

They live primarily in the woodlands of eastern Russia, where males can grow to 10ft 9ins long and 300kg in weight and where their diet consists of elk and wild boar.

They roam up to 390 square miles of natural territory across that terrain.