This may seem OT to uk-d-i-y, but there are electrical experts there.
That's not me. I've heard somewhere of this happening with cattle where there is a current flowing through the ground. The current takes the path of least resistance, which happens to be up the hind legs and down the fore legs (or vice versa) resulting in a dead cow.
Which is less of a problem if your feet are close together. The potential/length means that if you have a long footbase you get more voltage.
It is more to do with the fact that the path between the feet in a quadruped can go past the heart, while in a biped it goes nowhere near it.
Colin Bignell
Wonder if that is the basis of horses/cattle etc being "more sensitive to electricity" or of there is a more fundemental physiological basis as well.
It's quite common for cattle to be killed in fields by ground strike lightning near by as the potential difference in the ground between front and rear legs is enough to kill. It's also why if caught out in the open in a thunderstorm and you hair starts to stand up and prickle you squat down not lie down. You should also squat your hands clasped over the top of your head and elbows clamped to the sides of your knees. If you do get hit hopefully the blast goes down your forearm and lower leg rather than your head and body.
The equivalent of a current going in through a hand and out through the feet, or in through one hand and out through the other,
I believe that the most conductive tissues within the body are the nerves. If you survive such a shock, ISTR that there are often serious problems from the nervous systems being fried.
There may well be. The vets I used to share with a Uni had a mantra that seemed to apply to almost everything and went 'except the cat and especially the horse'.
Colin Bignell
All very informative as usual but when is someone going to explain out how it works in sufficient detail for me to make sure that no cable I happen to leave around in the garden could possibly kill a passing fox[1]?
[1]these are the urban foxes which dig up plants, casually stand and watch from 5 yards (as this afternoon), keep me awake at 2 a.m. - and 3, and 4, and .... But I do appreciate that I must not set out to harm them which is why I want to know what not to do.
Lead poisoning is the best thing for foxes. Preferably in a .177 / 7 grain form if they are sat at 5 yards.
Next is a snare where you think they are getting in. Lead poisoning in the head can be required if they are caught.
3rd, and least best permanent solution is a trap, baited with rotting meat off-cuts. Difficult to catch one, but easily poisoned when caught with a quick infusion of lead to the head.Or, get a dog to scare them off, or get large fences all round your garden. Agricultural electric fence can be used to keep them out too, but is expensive.
Alan.
It's all quite clearly explained in the dailymail article.
Errrr.... right.
Darren
One of the local bowling greens has an electric fence round it for that reason. Derek
ROFL!
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember dmc@puffin. (D.M.Chapman) saying something like:
Ah, so 'osses is like batteries, roight?
Yeah - that's why knights of old kept a string of chargers.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Skipweasel saying something like:
The Prince of Darkness being amongst them.
Some day my prints[1] will come.
[1] Sooner or later no one is going to remember what on earth that was about.We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Skipweasel saying something like:
Bonusprint?
Prints in general. Few of the kids at primary school have any idea that you used to wait for pictures to arrive after you took them - often weeks, sometimes months later.
I'm still waiting for some and it has been over 30 years !!
And you had rolls of film with rainy beach shots in the middle, and a Christmas tree at each end.
Chris
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