[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

It's not the volts that does it, it's the amps.

A common static spark may have 22000 volts but extremely low amps.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

"It's not the volts that does it, it's the amps.

A common static spark may have 22000 volts but extremely low amps."

Watts that you say? You say that it's the Watts.

I was about to post much the same thing. In this case, it's just a way to sensationalize the report -- often it's also a sneaky form of propaganda. For instance, every article on Tasers says they "shoot 50,000 volts" -- or some other gibberish. This either demonstrates the reporters' ignorance of science, or their duplicity -- or both. 50,000 volts just sounds so much more sensational than 15 Watts, or 1/10 Ampere.

Electric fences are another high-voltage source that have zapped many people -- and probably raccoons. Why not have headlines about farm boys surviving 11,000 volts from pi**ing on their electric fence?