Farmers leaders have accused the group behind a graphic anti-badger-cull campaign of misleading the public and ignoring the harsh reality of cattle being slaughtered.

An advertisement by the charity Care for the Wild features an image of a badger next to words in blood red which urge “Stop the cull”.

However, the information on the poster, which says 12,000 badgers have already been killed has angered the National Farmers’ Union, which says the figure includes 11,000 badgers who were killed in a trial eight years ago.

Dominic Dyer, the charity’s policy adviser, justified the campaign, which has already appeared on billboards and will be posted around the country, saying it helped people understand the level of badger deaths.

But an NFU spokesman said it was “a shock tactic” and “a distraction” from the real need to tackle bovine TB using all available options.

He said including badgers killed in the Randomised Badger Cull Trial (RBCT) was, “in our view, misleading to the public about what is currently happening in Somerset and Gloucestershire”.

He said: “More than 70,000 cattle have been compulsorily slaughtered in Great Britain in the last two years because of bTB and it remains one of the biggest threats facing our beef and dairy farmers.

“People are increasingly recognising and understanding the impact bTB has on farms and farming families and the need for it to be dealt with.

“We know the public have a great deal of empathy and support for farmers and the role they play in producing high quality traceable food.

“We also understand that the policy is controversial and that some people will never support the culling of badgers – even though it is an essential part of disease eradication.”

Mr Dyer acknowledged the 12,000 figure included 11,000 killed in the RBCT under the previous Government.

“People need to understand what is happening in the English countryside right now and I think this advertisement will give them a good idea,” he said.

“We have good reason to believe that around one in four people in this country still haven’t heard about the cull.

“Of those who do know about it, we believe that most are against it, but many more believe the government when they say ‘We don’t have any choice – we have to cull badgers’.”

The current cull in Somerset and Gloucestershire began last month and is due to end on Monday.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs hopes to use the schemes to establish whether shooting badgers can used elsewhere to stop the spread of bTB.