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Last Updated: Wednesday September 15 2010 07:11 GMT

Plan to cull badgers in England

A badger leaving its set

Farmers in England may be allowed to kill badgers if new plans go ahead.

The government reckons it will help stop the spread of a disease which kills cows called tuberculosis or TB.

The number of cows with TB has increased rapidly in the past few years, and 35,000 have to be killed every year after catching the disease.

But animal rights campaigners say there's not enough proof killing badgers will work. A planned badger cull in Wales was stopped in July.

The government is also looking into other ways of stopping the spread of TB, including giving badgers special injections to stop them catching it.