Anti-badger cull activists have taken images of a ‘badger hunter’ using a ‘military grade’ weapon sight to shoot the animals.

Staffordshire Against the Cull activists were on patrol in fields near Stafford on the night of September 9 when they came across an armed hunter in a green vehicle.

The group became involved in a verbal confrontation and later posted details and a video of the incident to their Facebook page. They wrote: “On Wednesday, a keen-eyed badger patroller spotted a suspicious vehicle skulking in the darkness near a heavily persecuted badger sett on farmland at Bradley, west of Stafford.

“On becoming aware that he had been rumbled, and his plans to shoot the surviving badgers thwarted, he drove past us in his green Isuzu, before leaving the field.

“As you can hear, he was in communication with his control room. After telling us we are not allowed on a public footpath, he advised us to carry on what we are doing. Such encouraging words are hardly needed, as saving badgers from men like this is highly motivating.

“He moved to another site nearby, only to encounter a second patrol. His vehicle then left the area. We’ll be looking out for him and his ilk every night until the cull is over.”

It is estimated that more than 4,000 badgers could be shot in Staffordshire over the next four months as the controversial cull is expanded into the county.

The Government has granted new licences for badger control in 10 ‘high risk’ areas of England, including parts of Staffordshire, in order to protect cattle from bovine tuberculosis. But activists say the cull is ‘cruel and ineffective’.

A Staffordshire Against the Cull spokesman later told StokeonTrentLive they believe the cull is politically motivated.

They said: “I think they had a .22 [rifle], but I’m not a gun expert. They all have military grade sights on them so that the risk of of missing is reduced. We believe they have thermal imaging as well, so that they can see in darkness.

“When the original plans for culling were set out, the scientists who had carried out the badger cull trials said that badger culling would make no difference in controlling TB in cattle. But they were largely ignored, not unlike the scientists who have been talking about Covid.

“We believe that the cull is a largely political exercise and is targeted towards gaining the support of farmers and the NFU.

“The British Veterinary Association have also condemned free shooting of badgers as inhumane.”

Hundreds of badgers have already been killed in neighbouring Cheshire, where a licence was granted last year.

Official figures show bovine TB (bTB) incidence in the Gloucestershire cull area has fallen from 10.4 per cent to 5.6 per cent in year four of the cull, while in Somerset it has dropped from 24 per cent to 12 per cent.

Farming minister George Eustice says this reduction is in line with expectations and shows that the Government’s 25-year bTB eradication strategy is working.

He said: “Figures showing reductions in TB cases in Somerset and Gloucestershire are evidence that our strategy for dealing with this slow moving, insidious disease is delivering results.

“Bovine TB remains one of the greatest animal health threats to the UK. There is no single measure that will provide an easy answer, which is why we are committed to pursuing a wide range of interventions to protect the future of our dairy and beef industries and eradicate the disease within 20 years.

“No one wants to be culling badgers forever, so the progress reported is encouraging.”