The pressure group that forced the Government into a U-turn on the sell-off of forests has launched a campaign to halt the proposed cull of badgers.

But a West Country MP last night labelled 38 Degrees as an “urban pressure group that does not understand the countryside”.

Ministers this month announced plans that could lead to 40 badger culling zones. Two “pilot” schemes could take place next summer.

38 Degrees, which harnessed the power of the Internet to block the privatisation of publicly-owned forests earlier this year, believes the plans “simply don’t stack up”.

It has called on its 800,000-strong membership to start a “massive petition to tell the Government to call off the cull”. It has more than 27,500 members in Dorset, Somerset, Cornwall and Devon.

“Last week we voted to decide whether or not to launch a campaign to stop the Government’s plan to kill badgers,” wrote campaigner Marie Campbell on the group’s website.

“The results are in – 87 per cent of respondents answered ‘Yes’ to the following question: ‘Should we work together to stop Government plans to kill badgers?’”

The group is co-founded by millionaire Gordon Roddick, a graduate of Cirencester’s Royal Agricultural College, and has already helped stop Britain’s first super dairy. It argues the science does not justify a cull.

Organisers at 38 Degrees have particular misgivings over “controlled shooting” being used in the proposed cull, which would see trained marksmen shooting free-running badgers.

The method was not tested in the ten-year Randomised Badger Culling Trials.

38 Degrees argues that the Government should not have scaled-back trials of an injectable vaccine, and must invest more cash in an oral inoculation for both badgers and cattle.

David Babbs, a director of 38 Degrees, said of the proposed use of controlled shooting: “There won’t be an assessment of the shooting method. They have adopted it because it is cheaper and they assume it will have the same effect as trapping. That is not science.”

George Eustice, Conservative MP for Camborne and Redruth, said: “38 Degrees is an urban pressure group that does not understand the countryside.”

Mr Eustice, who sits on the Rural Affairs Select Committee, added: “No-one wants to be killing badgers. However, we have got to be guided by the evidence. A badger cull can significantly reduce the incidence of bovine TB in cattle. It will lead to a healthier badger population and healthier cattle.”