A family lost 28 cattle to a lighting strike in Canada’s Saskatchewan
The family of farmers who owned the cattle were heartbroken and described the tragedy as "the worst thing" they have ever seen on their farm.
Farm owner Glen Briere recalled when he reached the spot, it "made me sick to my stomach to see what I had seen".
The family said the weather had become stormy on Friday and they had found the dead cattle two days later.
"It was Friday night when that storm we had had very severe lightning. The [lightning] most definitely hit the fence," Mr Briere said.
There were 14 cows, 13 calves and one herd sire dead along a fence in their pasture, CTV News reported.
Mr Briere and his wife were out of town when the lightning killed the cattle. His brother-in-law checked in on the cows on Sunday when he found them dead.
Local media reported that the family now faces financial loss due to the death of their cattle apart from the emotional toll the deaths have taken on them.
In several photos and videos, many of the animals can be seen intertwined with the fence. Mr Briere said some appeared to have been struck and blown away from the fence.
Reader Comments
grain farms burning in the uk, ships being sunk, yuke rain denying grain to be sent to countrys that ordered it, food chain being poisened ffs
these globalist nazi scum, just keep rocking the boat
Lightening hits fence, maybe even multiple strikes, and suddenly all your beef is bbq'd.
I wonder how many cattle they had in total?
The potential (voltage) drops exponentially with distance from the point of impact, with a lethal range of perhaps 10 to 20 yards.
And I want to see evidence that the fence wire can actually transport that amount of energy without vaporizing immediately.
Still, if the wire carries it a goodly ways as it vaporizes, it should leave an ion trail the current can follow, intact wire or not - so you might get to quite a few cattle with it, especially if they're in full contact with the wire.
And the current can travel by ground and underground a good ways depending on the material. Not to mention it's probably soaking wet for an inch or two with dissolved salts in the muddy mess to easily carry current.
I wouldn't bet on it being lightening that got them (not normal lightening anyway - but it's the best I can work out without more info and/or being smarter to start with.
Neither do I know the point of impact and the position of the animals, nor the kind of ground, it's condition (wet ?), nor the type of wire and it's mounting position.
B y the way, I know of two types of such wire used here. One is perhaps 1/10 of an inch, stainless steel (I think). Rather sturdy and corrosion resistant. The other is about 1/5" nylon with two thin wires wrapped around (I guess about 1/16" each), cheaper, and more flexible, but also using stainless steel. The weather (water) resistance is the more important factor here, I think.
Those wires are supposed to carry short, periodic pulses of high voltages (4 ... 10kV) with a limited energy (a few Joules), depending on the animal. It needs to be painful to them, but not hurting permanently. The higher electrical resistance is not a problem at this voltages, there will be enough energy left to be dissipated through the animal if it touches.
I had touched such wires set up for bovine occasionally in my life (usually unintentionally) - and I did not like it ...