ECN Forum Forums Safety Discussion and News Safety News and Product Recalls Dairy Cow Electrocuted by Electric Fence

An Ayreshire Dairy Cow perished a few weeks ago at my folk's dairy farm. She was found laying atop of the electric fence in a swampy area, apparently having tried to step over it. She wasn't of the "rogue spirit" type, and was actually unusual for her to attempt to cross a fence.

My question is: How is it possible for there to be enough current available to actually kill a cow? Isn't the voltage stepped up, but the current very limited? What could have failed or gone bad to cause this dangerous situation?

Side note:

After tiring of buying battery after battery, on a different electric fence, I installed an AC/DC X-former 6V 500MAh, but the actual voltage readings on the secondary of the X-former was closer to 8V, could this cause the available current to reach dangerous proportions, or just merely step up the voltage 25% or so?

[This message has been edited by sparky66wv (edited 08-01-2002).]

Sparky66,

Could it be that just the stress of being continuously shocked while hung up on the fence eventually caused her to have a heart attack?

I would 2nd Matt's comment, as i've access to an EKG monitor, and have experimented with <ahem> 'external influence'

[disclaimer]do NOT try this at home[/disclaimer]


p.s.---condolenses to the cow.....

p.p.s----good to see some'discussion' in the 'safety discussion' section here......


[This message has been edited by sparky (edited 08-01-2002).]