I spend a lot of time out and about in the country side, and often come across the electric fences that farmers put up to protect their stock.  By electric fence I mean a length of thick string that stretches from upright metal spokes that are about a metre high. This is wired into a battery that, when switched on, electrifyes the string. If you or an animal touches this live fence then a shock is given out, not painful, but enough to scare you or the animal!!  I heard a very alarming story with regard to one of these fences, and I wanted to pass it on to you all as a warning as to how scary they can be. It was a very wet day ( surprise! surprise! ) and my friends' dog was soaked to the core. The dog was snuffling around close to one of these electric fences and his body touched the live string.The dog was thrown into the air with the shock and he landed on his back, letting out a horrible doggy scream. We all know what the result can be with wet and electricity, and because the dog was soaked he had a massive shock given to him. My friend thought that his dog was dying, and apparently the dog laid curled up for the rest of the day with glazed eyes. The dog did recover, thank goodness, but a smaller dog would most definitely had died, and I found the whole story very upsetting.