Most of the time when people think of an electric fence, they think of something designed to keep an animal inside. The prison yards have electric security fences around them to help deter inmates from attempting to escape. There are people who build an electric fence around their property for the purpose of protecting the animals within the fence.
A cow is a very stubborn animal. Barbed wire is the most widely used material for the construction of enclosures that maintain herds of cows. When a cow collides with barbed wire, it can cut itself very badly. In remote areas, the animal can be seriously injured and succumb to these injuries before the owner discovers them.
Placing an electric fence where a barbed wire fence once existed will help protect cows from being injured by the fence material. Animals can smell electricity and are less likely to try to cross a fence that is electrically charged, but when pushed, they will receive an electric shock. The impact will be enough to get your attention, but not to cause real harm to the animal. The wire that the electrical charge passes through will not cut the animal.
Electric fence can also be used to ensure that predators do not enter an animal’s enclosure and kill it. A chicken is a defenseless animal. In the wild, the chicken can fly into the treetops to protect itself from foxes, raccoons, possums, and mink. When the chicken is confined in a pen, it can no longer fly to the safety of the trees to hide from these predators. The predator can simply break the wire around the enclosure and kill the chickens. If the fence is electrically charged, predators cannot break through and kill the chickens as easily.
Chicken coops can be protected with these fences, but they can also be placed around enclosures that have farrowing animals and hutches, or around the home of any animal whose natural defenses have been removed because a human has locked them up.
Many people don’t think twice about these fences because their property is so remote that they don’t have the ability to connect the fence hardware to an electrical power source. Technology has given these people electric fence hardware that runs on solar energy. It is not necessary to have a power source on hand because the solar panel will produce its own electricity and recharge the fence every day.
This means that these fences can be placed around any animal enclosure, no matter how remote the enclosure is. People have the ability to protect the animals in their care, and that is what we should be doing. When we remove an animal from its natural habitat and lock it up, we accept responsibility for its food, shelter, and care. Your safety is our concern.