[Riley]

I’ve actually done this.

Many years ago, as a high school kid in a rural area. Had to go, walked up to a thicket of underbrush that completely concealed a live cattle fence. It was also quite damp underfoot, as it had recently rained.

I’m standing there happily doing my thing, when every muscle in my body seized up hard. Then it stopped, and started again. I got hit twice before it dawned on my that there was a cattle fence in there. Between pulses of current, I turned away from it. The direction I approached it from, there was no way to see it or any of the warning markers that I found afterward. Where I was, it was totally hidden from view.

I don’t know what ‘Mythbusters’ said about them, but peeing on a cattle fence is just about what you’d expect- a thoroughly unpleasant experience.

[dr_lew]

don’t know what ‘Mythbusters’ said about them, but peeing on a cattle fence is just about what you’d expect- a thoroughly unpleasant experience.

They said it all depends. Normally, the stream will not be continuous since it breaks up into droplets, and hence will not provide a conductive path.

[PeterPrinciple]

Between pulses of current,

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And that is the safety feature of an electric fence. In the early days of electric fence they didn’t have this and livestock died. Downed power lines don’t have the safety feature.