A Kent animal conservationist has slammed a woman for touching a tiger's testicles at a zoo in Thailand.

Pictures emerged this week of the tourist inappropriately handling the animal at Tiger Kingdom in Chiang Mai and were met with heavy criticism.

Now, Damian Aspinall - chairman of the Aspinall Foundation which runs Howlett's near Canterbury and Port Lympne near Hythe - has also hit out at the stunt, describing it as "animal abuse".

Mr Aspinall took to Instagram to call out the woman, named as Waraschaya Akkarachaiyapas, for violating the tiger.

He said: "Waraschaya Akkarachaiyapas completely violated this probably sedated tiger by grabbing his testicles for a selfie during a visit to Tiger Kingdom Zoo in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

"Anywhere that lets you put your hands on a tiger for money is almost certainly not acting in the animals’ best interest.

"This is not tourism, this is not conservation, this is animal abuse."

Mr Aspinall used the hashtags #animalabuse #animalcruelty and #disgusting.

His followers clearly agreed with his post, with one commenting: "This is animal abuse."

Another said: "I would never travel to a country and spend my well earned cash to a nation that abuses beautiful animals. When will this stop!?"

A third said: "If someone had touched her parts I'm sure she would have something to say about it especially if she had been sedated for the pleasure of others. It's absolutely disgusting."

Zoos in Thailand have previously faced criticism for allegedly sedating their aniamls so tourists can pose for pictures with them.

According to MailOnline, a spokesman for Tiger Kingdom has since said they will not allow anyone to touch the animal's genitals in future.

A spokesman said: "We do not allow tourists to grab the tigers' testicles but they are allowed to touch any part of the animal's body as long as our specialists are present.

"From now on, we will make sure that no visitor will ever be able to touch this part of a tiger's body again."

Earlier this year, Mr Aspinall questioned why zoos were not doing more to help reintroduce cheetahs to the wild .

Read more: All the latest news from Hythe

Escaped animals, unusual finds and news from the RSPCA can all be found here