The head of a Sussex-based charity risked her life in a daring mission to save a pride of lions from being shot by tourist trophy hunters.

Dr Barbara Maas and a team of colleagues from the charity Care For The Wild International (CFTWI) planned the operation to rescue the nine lions from a farm in South Africa where they had been bred for what is called canned hunting.

The rescue team came face-to-face with the farm owner and an angry confrontation ensued but Dr Maas and her team remained determined and were able to remove the lions and take them to a sanctuary.

The lions, one male, two female, three young lions and three cubs, were destined to become the trophies of rich tourists who pay up to £25,000 to shoot big game.

CFTWI has branded the tourism shoots canned hunting because the lions and other animals are shot while in an enclosure.

The tourists, mainly from America and Europe, drive around the perimeter of the enclosure and take pot shots from the safety of a truck.

The charity, based in Kingsfold, estimates there are 2,500 lions held by 45 to 50 lion breeders on big game farms waiting to be shot by wealthy tourists. Dr Maas, 42, the chief executive of CFTWI, spent months planning the raid on the farm in the Limpopo province of South Africa. Her team worked with undercover police and conservation officials.

Hunting is not illegal but the farmer who was breeding the animals for the shoots had no licence to breed them or permits to take them into the province.

International hunters are willing to pay upwards of £20,000 to shoot a captive-bred male lion with a well developed dark mane. Other South African game ranchers specialise in breeding tigers, leopards and jaguars specifically for canned hunting.

The hunters are often duped into believing they have shot a wild lion or other big cat.

Dr Maas, who has dedicated her life to saving wildlife, said: "The practice of breeding lions as hunting trophies is indefensible from a conservation and welfare point. It is morally repugnant and CFTWI has teamed up with South African conservationists to end it.

"These animals deserve better then to be drugged, separated from their newly-born cubs and then, in a confined area and in totally staged circumstances, to suffer a brutal and pointless death at the hands of a new generation of great white hunters searching for the call of the wild.

"These horrible and cruel practices must not be allowed to continue. The fact the canned hunting industry has been tolerated in South Africa, a country that prides itself on sound wildlife conservation, is simply repellent.

"Turning a national blind eye may also endanger the country's future as a highly profitable tourism haven."

The charity can be contacted at CFTWI, The Granary, Tickfold Farm, Kingsfold, West Sussex, RH12 3SE. The web site can be visited at www.careforthewild.com