A zoo has given up on plans to try and force an overweight leopard compared to a Disney character onto a diet on the explanation the big cat is too old.

Zoo officials decided that it was fair to try and force the 16-year-old leopard that is being compared to Officer Clawhauser in the Disney animated film Zootopia to lose weight.

But, they said that the stress of not getting the usual meals was too much for the ageing feline, and have decided to let it continue to enjoy its life at the Panzhihua Zoo in southwestern China’s Sichuan Province.

The zoo staff said they had reduced the leopard’s portions to 50 per cent of what it was getting before, but there had been no noticeable drop in weight.

Viral footage of the leopard dubbed “China’s Officer Clawhauser” was widely circulated in March prompting a rush of visitors to the zoo to see the animal whose head looks significantly out of proportion with the rest of its body.

The zoo boasts that the money earned from ticket prices is all spent on feeding the animals, which many people pointed out was probably the reason why obesity appeared to be a problem among some of the animals, including the leopard.

Sun Quanhui, a senior scientific adviser at World Animal Protection, told local media that the very least they could do was make sure that the leopard had to work to find the food, putting it in difficult-to-reach places.

However, one concession has been made with the leopard as it was given a cage that is double the size to help it move around more.

Leopards can live up to 17 years in the wild and in captivity have been known to live up to 23 years.

A zoo spokesman added that as long as the leopard was happy, that was the main thing.

Online commentators like ‘H’ said: “I really give a big thumbs up to this zoo. The animals in other zoos are so skinny.”

And user ‘Prejudice’ said: “I hope I can be reborn in Panzhihua Zoo in my next life.”

While the user ‘People’ said: “So cute, I want to touch it.”