JACKSON, N.J. – A woman who has been trying for four years to stop the state from taking control of her 24 tigers has lost a bid to relocate the animals from her New Jersey preserve to coastal Maine.

Roland D. Martin, commissioner of Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, rejected Joan Byron-Marasek’s request for a state permit to import and exhibit her tigers in his state. In a letter Wednesday to her attorney, Darren Gelber, Martin said the decision was based on a review of court records and administrative actions involving her troubles in New Jersey.

Additionally, Maine regulations require that any facility such as a zoo or tiger compound first be constructed and pass a state inspection before a permit is approved.

“It has been determined that your client has failed to satisfactorily demonstrate the capability and qualifications to perform the functions required to obtain permits to import and exhibit the tigers in Maine,” Martin said in the letter.

Byron-Marasek is facing a court order issued in November that authorized New Jersey wildlife authorities to seize the tigers from her Ocean County compound and send them to a Texas animal haven.

Byron-Marasek has vowed to appeal the court order, which does not impose a specific deadline.

Since December, she has been working with Marilynn English, a Verona banker and animal rights activist who had offered to lease Byron-Marasek about 100 acres she owns in Steuben, Maine, for $1. Steuben is a coastal town of about 1,100 residents in Washington County. “I’ve seen her with the tigers. They are healthy and happy, and they truly love Joan. She should be able to keep them,” English said. People in Steuben opposed the idea, claiming the tigers would endanger their safety and lower property values. They even placed a “No Tigers” sign at the town’s entrance.

New Jersey authorities have tried to remove her tigers since early 1999, when wildlife officials shot and killed a 430-pound Bengal tiger found roaming loose in a neighborhood near the preserve.