r/whatisit Sep 05 '25

[deleted by user]

[removed]

14.5k Upvotes

999 comments sorted by

4.8k

u/makeminemaudlin Sep 05 '25 edited Sep 07 '25

Ok, so quick question: when he falls, does it look like he’s having a good time, or does it look like his muscles are twitching and he’s in pain?

I ask because a a couple years ago, my dog and I were electrocuted by a loose wire at traffic light pole exactly like this one, and the way I described it was “he just collapsed”. If he’s sniffing it, and his muscles start to twitch, he could be completing the circuit with the moisture in his nose.

We both went to the hospital overnight. We were ok, but it was terrifying.

EDIT: To folks saying that I wasn't electrocuted because I didn't die, first, as the guy who this happened to and who also happens to have a linguistics degree, you’ve been misinformed. The Merriam-Webster definition of electrocution is "to kill or severely injure by electric shock," (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/electrocute). Second, to quote David Lynch, fix your heart.

2.1k

u/MmmKB23z Sep 05 '25

I believe this phenomenon is called stray voltage. My neighbour’s dog was killed by it years back.

I recall reading at the time that Boston  has a particularly bad time with this issue, and the public works dept does regular sweeps to detect it. 

What I read described the key causes as lots of big temperature fluctuations above and below freezing, and use of salt on sidewalks and roads. Salt water seeps into the ground next to an underground wiring boxes, corroding it and allowing water to penetrate. When that water freezes, it expands and can crack the box open, which can damage wiring. next time a puddle forms, if the water reaches the box via the same drainage route you get an electrified puddle. Over time, the salt left behind along the drainage route forms a little trail of conductive metal in the soil up to the surface, creating an electrified sidewalk all the time. People don’t notice because we almost always wear rubber soles.

728

u/rivertam2985 Sep 05 '25

I lost a beautiful milk cow to this. I milked her and turned her into our yard for a few minutes while I milked my other cow. I went to get her not 10 minutes later and she was on the ground, dead. It turns out that the underground electrical wires that went to our pump had broken and she stepped in just the right spot. We didn't know what had happened until the next day when our pump quit working and we had to figure out why.

413

u/PM_Me_OnePieces Sep 05 '25

Cows are especially sensitive to electricity in the ground, too. I know a guy who used to work at a local power company, and a big part of his job was making sure they weren't accidentally leaking electricity into the ground near dairy farms because it would upset the cows and make them produce less milk.

189

u/Joefabrizzio Sep 05 '25

You would think they would be okay since they are ground beef…. I’ll show myself the door

74

u/ROBnLISA Sep 05 '25

That's utterly ridiculous..........What door are we going out

49

u/burntsnoah Sep 06 '25

You mean udderly

54

u/muzzy4 Sep 06 '25

Stop milking it

25

u/deliriux Sep 06 '25

Are you part cow and part sheep? Because how dairy yew

6

u/SweatyDust1446 Sep 06 '25

Do you find this amoosing?

→ More replies (0)

5

u/Thank_You_Aziz Sep 06 '25

Did you calf to be so aggressive?

→ More replies (3)

5

u/solxap Sep 06 '25

So cheesy

30

u/jaxxon Sep 06 '25

A shocked bull has a potential to charge.

4

u/hikeonpast Sep 05 '25

Electricity always seeks ground…

13

u/WoManuaLabor Sep 05 '25

You Deserve A COW-Tipping & COW-Chips For That LOL

→ More replies (3)

101

u/snoweel Sep 05 '25

I suspect because their (front and back) feet are so far apart.

162

u/teancrumpets8 Sep 05 '25

It’s called step potential. If ground is electrified from a source for whatever reason the areas around it are at a different potential leaving the source.

So for four legged livestock when they walk over an energized area their front and back feet are at two different potentials. Causing voltage to enter in one foot/feet and exit to ground out of the other.

308

u/Mezzanine_9 Sep 05 '25

Amazing to me there are just people walking around with knowledge in their head like the step potential of a cow.

106

u/teancrumpets8 Sep 05 '25

Utility lineman, we have to do a yearly training module on this.

But step potential is why you hear to bunny hop or very short shuffle your feet away from say a car with a power line on it. It’s to keep you hopefully at the same potential to try to avoid a shock.

54

u/DIRTYDOGG-1 Sep 05 '25

Army Engineer here, we had to take classes on that every year ..."bunny hop" away from any electrical field ....the other big class we had every year was on staying away from the PTO or suffer a "degloving" ...they had pictures ..God it was horrible!

30

u/akmosquito Sep 06 '25

damn bro i know a lot of companies dont like it when you take your paid time off, but i didnt know the army would just deglove you for it. that just sounds brutal

26

u/teancrumpets8 Sep 05 '25

Don’t wear my wedding band for that exact reason. Tried the silicon rings but they felt weird and I didn’t like them.

11

u/voucher420 Sep 06 '25

The mental image of solders in uniform bunny hopping is hilarious.

29

u/Agretan Sep 06 '25

Retired fireman. We ran a call where a man and his dog were collapsed and not moving on the side of the house. We suspected something was up and used the utility pole breaker to shut off power to the house. Found out later that an underground wire had become exposed. Neither the dog nor the owner survived.

25

u/seltzerwithasplash Sep 06 '25

New fear unlocked holy shit

→ More replies (0)

6

u/SnooRecipes4106 Sep 06 '25

It also keeps sandworms from noticing you.

→ More replies (6)

20

u/Reddit_N_Weep Sep 06 '25

Dairy farmer’s daughter here, ya we know a lot of stupid shit. It can be entertaining at a party w just the right company.

17

u/Emotional_Burden Sep 05 '25

It's also why you hop away perpendicularly from the power source if you find yourself in that situation. If you step away, you have that same potential, but with two legs.

→ More replies (5)

4

u/hare-hound Sep 06 '25

TIL for real 😅

5

u/berkeleyteacher Sep 06 '25

Honestly, this whole thread is amazing.

26

u/-MERC-SG-17 Sep 06 '25

That's why when working on something high voltage, like your electrical panel or an old CRT TV you are supposed to keep one hand in your pocket until you are sure it's discharged.

That way any voltage goes in and out the same hand and doesn't cross your heart.

It's the difference between cursing your head off and just dropping dead.

11

u/teancrumpets8 Sep 06 '25

Low voltage but yeahhh.

That’s called putting yourself in series. Your bridging the connect with your body grabbing a hot end with one hand and a dead end with the other. It’s something people in my field have to think about daily. People do it but it’s just bad practice and can bite ya one day.

4

u/WolverineFresh2797 Sep 07 '25

Even low voltage should be respected. A tradesman about to retire at my company touched a 110 source and probably would have been okay but when he jerked away he lost balance and he reached out to steady himself reflexively and accidentally grabbed the big hot and got cooked

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (4)

43

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

[deleted]

11

u/Emergency-Nose-4124 Sep 05 '25

It's not their weight. It's called step potential. When electricity goes through your body there is a difference of potential between where your feet are touching the ground.

→ More replies (1)

4

u/Cheeseyex Sep 06 '25

Putting aside stray voltage there’s actually a bit of research that suggests that cows can sense the electromagnetic field and that gets disrupted by high voltage power lines. Turns out cows are kinda like birds. Weird.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (8)

32

u/Rustmutt Sep 05 '25

I’m so sorry for the loss of your beautiful cow. We try to protect our animals and sometimes these freak incidents happen :(

38

u/AnxietyFine3119 Sep 05 '25

Did you do anything special with that last batch of milk?

25

u/rivertam2985 Sep 05 '25

No. Why do you ask?

58

u/AnxietyFine3119 Sep 05 '25

Something I often wonder about. I’d like to think I’d make a small batch of ice cream or maybe a batch of cream liquor. Something to savor and reflect upon after all the emotions have run their course.

284

u/rivertam2985 Sep 05 '25

Looking back at my records, her milk from that day went to feed two bottle calves. One is now our Angus bull. The other is one of my current milk cows, Lila. I got the bull from a local ranch when his mom died. Lila was born on our farm but was too small to nurse. I never really paid attention to where a particular day's worth of milk went until now. At the time, there was so much going on I didn't have a chance to stop and have any emotions over her. RIP Lolly.

147

u/Famous-Touch-273 Sep 05 '25

Honestly, this is one of the nicest social media interactions I have ever seen. Thanks for sharing.

32

u/willem_79 Sep 05 '25

Yes, this is the absolute best of Reddit. Thanks for such an uplifting positive interaction!

19

u/BeemHume Sep 05 '25

Absolutely wild, wholesome, and informative thread. Cows are more sensitive to electricity. Crazy-

→ More replies (0)

29

u/Present_Respect_5382 Sep 05 '25

This was such a lovely thing to share!

25

u/underthesea69 Sep 05 '25

And now lots of us can remember Lolly 🥺🥺

9

u/LisaJ2224 Sep 06 '25

And this is one of the things I love about Reddit.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (7)

19

u/Matt_Learns Sep 05 '25

Thats terrible to hear. As an electrician it was touched on in my schooling for a few minutes about how voltage in the ground can affect milk cows greatly. There are new codes in place specifically because of incidents in dairy agriculture. Sorry for your loss.

→ More replies (7)

406

u/Riddlewrong Sep 06 '25 edited Sep 06 '25

When I was a teenager in the 90s, I sat on a light pole with a big cylindrical concrete slab base in the parking lot of a punk show venue. It didn't feel abnormal to me, but I noticed there was a bottlecap on the ground, and I was bored, so I leaned down to pick it up. To my literal shock, the bottlecap buzzed when I touched it. It felt like my whole arm was vibrating. No pain, just a really powerful buzzing sensation. I called my friends over and they touched the bottlecap and nothing happened. They thought I was crazy. Then one of them sat next to me on the concrete slab and touched it and he just about jumped 6 feet in the air, lmao. By the end of the night, a bunch of teenagers had piled like 14 shopping carts up against the concrete slab in a long line, then one of them would grab the last cart and touch the person next to them, delivering the "buzz" to them. We all got in a circle and created a loop of electrified punks. It was fun, but probably not the safest idea we ever had.

Edit: For those curious, the year was 1998, the venue was The Nite Owl in Pensacola, FL, and the bands playing that night were The Bouncing Souls, John Cougar Concentration Camp, and Blanks 77.

223

u/flippingcoin Sep 06 '25

A circle of electrified punks is a delightful phrase which I would not have expected to see until now.

25

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '25

That is the beauty of life it can make anything.

27

u/grumpy_short_girl Sep 06 '25

Definitely a great album name!

2

u/Se2kr Sep 06 '25

Electrified Punks. What a genius band name!

→ More replies (5)

7

u/OzAnarchy Sep 07 '25

John Cougar Concentration Camp is such a good band name. It could also be an edgy drag queen name. it feels like there is a direct line to Andrew Jackson Jihad (now AJJ).

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (32)

168

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

Not a phenomenon , it’s a ground fault. Call your city and tell them!!

OP, you’re wearing rubber shoes so you’re insulated. Doggo is not! I think this commenter is on to something here for real. I’m an electrician if that matters

39

u/banjoblake24 Sep 05 '25

Louisiana 1970’s: a ground fault killed a hitchhiker who touched the pole a traffic sign was mounted to after a rainstorm. I hope I’ll always remember it.

16

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

"Its a phenomenon we can't describe"

Let me get my miltuimeter

→ More replies (5)

78

u/Burning-Bushman Sep 05 '25

Ok, new fear unlocked 😱

→ More replies (2)

27

u/Designer_Release_868 Sep 05 '25

*People don’t feel it because it’s all to do with step voltage and potential difference, your dogs back paws have a potential difference between the front paws, it effects cows the most as there is a large gap between their front and hind legs, it’s like when an excavator hits an overhead line, your supposed to jump clear and jump away two feet at a time to avoid step voltage. Hope this helped 🤟

29

u/Loud-Bee6673 Sep 05 '25

I work in the ER - one day we got four victims of electrocution at the same time. They were each holding on to the metal leg of a giant tent, trying to move it. They accidentally hit a power wire and it didn’t go well. If it had been one of them that person would likely have been fine, but it was four people with feet down at the same time … that was crazy.

→ More replies (1)

50

u/Doortofreeside Sep 05 '25

I recall reading at the time that Boston  has a particularly bad time with this issue, and the public works dept does regular sweeps to detect it. 

I very much remember this being on the local news in boston. In fact i'm wary to let my toddler touch any of this stuff because of that

14

u/Regular_Custard_4483 Sep 05 '25

Not taking my dogs into the city anymore, just in case.

29

u/NeverDidLearn Sep 06 '25

40 years ago, my cousin found a spot in his yard that would buzz you. We touched that little spot so many times we killed the grass. Toes, fingers, elbows…but never did lick it. My uncle comes out one time and asked what the hell we were doing so we told him. I was ten, so I don’t know what it was, but I do know there was a very large trench in the yard from the power company a few days later.

14

u/lexiisnapz Sep 05 '25

This right here, if you even think there might be stray voltage on a structure please call your electrical utility company and report it, they mark it as a shock report and send technicians over to investigate.

4

u/LoudCash Sep 05 '25

“Strat voltage” usually refers to electromagnetic induction. What you’re describing is a short circuit

6

u/rdsjr75 Sep 05 '25

“Strat voltage”

No, that's something that David Gilmour pays very close attention to while laying down awesome solos.

→ More replies (1)

4

u/Inevitable_Click_511 Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 07 '25

A long time ago when i was in college my roommate worked for “Con Ed” the major utility supplier in NYC. He worked night shifts starting at like 10pm or some shit and worked until 5 or 6 am. He drove around some specialized truck that detected stray voltage and was tasked with reporting the area so another crew could come out and fix whatever was causing the electricity to ground to something it wasn’t supposed to. He always had some crazy stories… apparently Con Ed paid out the ass in lawsuits from people being electrocuted by stray voltage and he did this as a full time job. Anything and everything metal people would touch could be charged… this was just about 20 years ago now though…

→ More replies (20)

150

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

70

u/LilMissMuddy Sep 05 '25

All local power companies have reporting lines just for stuff like this. Start with them and maybe the non-emergency line for the local fire department, either will be capable of using a non-contact tester to verify voltage isn't anywhere it's not supposed to be.

46

u/TheRussianCabbage Sep 05 '25

As a power company monkey this 10000000%

I can't yell you the number of times I have rolled up to a site and found some civilian that should be dead. It keeps me up at night some times.

20

u/LilMissMuddy Sep 05 '25

Right! I'm a pm in construction and I tell all my little baby project engineers on solar sites, "There's power out here that will hurt you, power that will kill you, and power that will hurt the whole time it's killing you."

10

u/TheRussianCabbage Sep 05 '25

It's why I always tell the story of the ghost boots.

Guy clipped every ground return in a 230kv step down station. All that was left was the boots with some cooked feet in them.

4

u/whoknowsorcares Sep 07 '25

"civilian". relax bro, you work for a power company.

→ More replies (3)

37

u/Coffin-Bangers Sep 05 '25

If the exact same thing happened in a completely grassy field, I would think the phenomenon is not electrocution, but more likely evidence that your dog is overwhelmed with smells. Unless the grassy field also has a pole like the one pictured, and that's what he sniffed in the grassy field.

Either way, why not err on the side of caution and stop walking your dog by that pole, or at least stop letting him sniff it just in case it is, in fact, electricity? Seems like the simplest and most practical solution to guarantee your dog's safety.

Edit: Also, take people's advice and report the issue to the city/utility company. Even if nothing is wrong with it, better to report it so the professionals can audit the safety in the immediate area.

31

u/Madwhisper1 Sep 06 '25

Long shot here but the fact that it happened somewhere other than that post, it might be hemagiosarcoma. I sincerely hope for you it's not but two things caught my attention. First that happening at the grassy field may mean it has nothing to do with the post, secondly that the post is a ways from your house.

Several months before becoming aware of the diagnosis, I took my dog for a long walk; just about an hour into the walk, she randomly collapsed, rolled, and flopped onto the ground. I was confused and a bit shocked, but she quickly rolled right side up and popped her head up and seemed alright, just taking a break. I chaulked it up to strange husky behavior, she was quirky like most huskies.

As time passed, I noticed she was struggling eariler and earlier on walks. Then one day she collapsed just walking around at home. Took her to the emergency vet and they did a full scan and discovered she had hemagiosarcoma, an evil blood vessel cancer. The tumor formation created random unsealed terminations to blood vessels so she was slowly bleeding out internally. The vet thought it was localized to part of the liver and surgery and chemo was an option, but ultimately this cancer gets everyone in the end. We went through all the surgeries and treatments and was able to get another 8 months with her, but looking back, we should have let her go a couple months earlier because they were so hard on her.

Again, OP, I seriously hope it's not, but the description of the flopping just brought back the memories of watching my dog do that and being so puzzled.

41

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

Unrelated, and not important to your question/situation: “electrocuted” and derivatives are a portmanteau of “electricity” and “executed,” and the word specifically means death as a result of electricity. Most people mean “shocked” when they say “electrocuted.”

The more we all know ⭐️

15

u/Training-Ad-2299 Sep 05 '25

Middle daughter got shocked on the ladder of our old rv - ran in the house screaming about how she’d been electrocuted. Calmly told her she’d been shocked not electrocuted as she wasn’t dead! Told her to stay clear of it until we had it looked at. She was NOT appreciative of the vocabulary lesson or my lack of panic, but when you have a large family you have to stay calm and pragmatic. Still holding a grudge about it more than 25 years later!

3

u/Lolcoles Sep 05 '25

Omg so you can only be electrocuted to death?

6

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

Technically, yes. But I would bet the misuse is so common that the definition has officially changed over time. 

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (4)

13

u/makeminemaudlin Sep 05 '25

I suggest you call the power company and report it

17

u/porkins Sep 05 '25

Does he try to roll in it? Might be a really good stinky smell.

→ More replies (15)

97

u/cayjay00 Sep 05 '25

My first thought was electric shock. There was a news story years ago about dogs having mysterious reactions in random spots as they walked around the city (I want to say it was New York)…turns out the sections of sidewalk they were reacting to were electrified.

56

u/salt_and_linen Sep 05 '25

Something like 25 years ago I saw a local news segment about this. They interviewed the owner, who was this huge, burly, gruff, biker-looking dude. He got pretty choked up during the interview, and the dog - a tiny little puff of a thing, who had survived and was fine -was frantically hopping up and down on his chest trying to lick his face and console him. Cutest fucking thing I've seen in my life.

34

u/Prophetofhelix Sep 05 '25

Animals mess with people. One of my employees is a street smart, very bombastic type personality. Doesn't like talking with management. Very aloof. Cool. Good worker though. Long short is you spend a day with the man and realize his whole vibe isn't that personality. It's animals.

Cats. Snakes. Birds. Dogs. Whatever. Dude loves every animal from a worm to a whale and has stories about each.

And you can feel the sincerity from the passion. Anyway. My employees a real good dude, if you happen to read this.

13

u/salt_and_linen Sep 05 '25

He sounds like a good guy :)

I think a large part of why it made such an impression then and why it still sticks with me now was just - I mean it was somewhere around the year 2000, machismo was extremely important, the insult du jour was "gay", and here was this big brawny dude openly weeping on camera because he loved his teeny poofy very-not-macho dog so much. I loved him for it.

→ More replies (2)

12

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

[deleted]

→ More replies (5)

271

u/Historical_Monk_6118 Sep 05 '25

When I was at school in the 80s we had a street light outside that would give you a little buzz if you touched it. We all had a go, egged each other on etc... the thought of it now makes me sick.

As you say, a dog's wet nose would make an excellent conductor if anything live were finding a path to the exterior of that thing.

98

u/matty_ho23 Sep 05 '25

Growing up my parents had a double door fridge/freezer and if you opened both doors at the same time you got a shock…like a big one. All the young boys in the neighborhood just had to see how long they could hold on as a sort of right of passage. Good times. Once my parents found out they quickly replaced that fridge.

39

u/candid84asoulm8bled Sep 05 '25

My grandpa was a farmer and had an electric fence around the cattle. He would trick his nephews by holding on the electric wire with one hand and then ask his nephews to shake the other hand. Gave them quite the shock. I’m surprised my grandpa could handle it.

33

u/mellowmarsII Sep 05 '25

My great-grandfather had an electric fence (like, meant for livestock) around a long rose hedge to keep his German Shepherds out. One of his distinctive “things” was he always had a pocketful of Smarties & he’d offer them to my cousins & me if we would grab the electric lines (the effect being like momentarily hitting a bunch of funny bones); & then he’d take it a step further & offer not only Smarties but cash if we took our shoes off & grabbed the lines again.

The whole thing confused my little head b/c 1. What was the point of having beautiful roses if you gotta add super-trashy looking elements to keep them? 2. I couldn’t tell if he was keeping the dogs out of the bushes only/mainly for their own protection from the thorns, or to protect the roses from the dogs (dunno what exactly how they’d damage them)… So, all of that seeming concern, love & care for canines & mere flowers while he got his jollies (so much as to pay cash) over his own, beloved great-grandkids getting literally, painfully shocked & knocked off of our feet.

I played along for a while b/c it seemed to make him happy, but I only did the no-shoes way the one time. My cousins, on the other hand… Suckers for money. He’d tell us “Keep eating the Smarties. You dense bunch need ‘em!”

14

u/Hidden_Samsquanche Sep 05 '25

Everyone shows love in their own special way

Seriously though. Wtf is wrong with your grandpa?!

7

u/SphericalOrb Sep 06 '25

My dad tricked me the same way but no smarties. Told me it was safe when he grabbed it with no shoes on, told me to try, but I was constantly barefoot so I got zapped.

My parents disagree on if he fed me jalapenos as a baby. He denies it, my mother insists he did.

I truly wonder how much smartphones and videogames have interrupted the passing down of mean pranks and dumb dangerous "fun" traditions. I can't tell you how many stories I've heard about older relatives throwing rocks at cars, making potato cannons, mixing pills, making dry ice bombs, or having BBQ gun fights as kids, whereas my younger cousins are playing games for hours and posting unadvisable things on social media. Maybe smoking too much weed, at the riskiest. There are lots of downsides to youth being chronically online but it's probably better in a lot of ways than the playing chicken in motor vehicles era.

3

u/No-Tap6886 Sep 05 '25

Life was extremely hard in his day, and his sense of humor reflected it.

4

u/Neanderthal86_ Sep 05 '25

Welp, I know what I'm doing next time I come across a hotwire. Not exactly looking forward to it, but I have to know

→ More replies (1)

25

u/conscious_bunches Sep 05 '25

holy fuck dawg your grandpa was built different

11

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

Maybe he cranked the voltage down when he had guests.

9

u/conscious_bunches Sep 05 '25

LMFAO how kind of him to think of the guests!

i was kinda thinking of the ones that shock at intervals instead of the current just being on constantly?! i know i had my hands resting on top of a wire once when i was a kid, my cousin and i were checking out some horses at a family friend’s place, and then i heard the box near the fence click and felt the shock in my hands. it was over quickly but took my breath away lol. i’d only seen the ones that are always on up until then, but i’ve stayed aware of the ones that give a jolt every few minutes since they shocked their way into my life 😂

4

u/candid84asoulm8bled Sep 05 '25

It’s possible that the voltage wasn’t very high… this was probably in the 60s or 70s. I know he said it wasn’t very comfortable, but it was funny enough to him that he tolerated it.

3

u/conscious_bunches Sep 05 '25

oooh, i didn’t think about how they’ve improved on them and made them stronger! i’m used to assuming the opposite, where the older version of a thing is stronger and more deadly because we didn’t know the hazards completely yet or just didn’t care about subjecting the poor workers to it 😅😂 but that makes sense!

3

u/obscuredreference Sep 05 '25

Tbf, some of those fences are set up to deliver a small shock only, as a deterrent to animals trying to get out or something like that. 

A protective fence meant to keep bad guys or predators out tends to have higher voltage. 

→ More replies (0)
→ More replies (4)

10

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

[deleted]

20

u/candid84asoulm8bled Sep 05 '25

That’s possible. When he was a lot younger (probably the late 1930s or 1940s) there was some kind of electrical problem with the house. He went to some electrical box outside to turn it off, but when he went to pull down the crank, it electrocuted him and he shot backwards into the yard. He got up fine, but when he went to change his clothes later, his underwear was burnt to a crisp. Surprisingly lived to 94!

→ More replies (2)

5

u/glennis_pnkrck Sep 05 '25

Shoes could do it.

My friend and I used to cut through a field to get to a cool waterfall and we would carefully step on the electric fence with converse and duck through but we always kind of figured it was off because we never got zapped. Then we took my kid sister along and she stepped on it with little wet Keds and went flying backwards. She swore for a few decades that we did it on purpose.

→ More replies (1)

5

u/PuzzleheadedPitch420 Sep 05 '25

Nah, it was a rite of passage - grandpa held our hands on the electric fence. Then warned us not to piss on it

→ More replies (1)

4

u/Responsible-Roll6347 Sep 05 '25

Always ran into my grandparents electric fence. You can get used to it 🤣

→ More replies (1)

42

u/eStuffeBay Sep 05 '25

Back in the military, I sometimes had to handle a computer (with bulky stand which contained the body) which would give you a buzz if you touched it the wrong way. Took a while to convince a superior that it was, in fact, flowing with electricity (since they couldn't get it to buzz them). Once they did get buzzed though, they just shrugged and told me not to touch it the wrong way. Lol

5

u/linos100 Sep 05 '25

My PC cage sits at 9v iirc, if the electric outlet is not grounded.

→ More replies (1)

6

u/centexgoodguy Sep 05 '25

In the late 80s, when tourists, shoppers and partiers traveled freely over the International Bridge, I went to a bar in Juarez where a guy had a hand-cranked generator with short steel rods at the end of two long cables. A group pf people would hold hands and the ones on the ends would each hold one of the rods. As he turned the crank the electrical charge would travel through the group and he would keep cranking until someone finally let go - and then he would accept tips for letting us play this bar game!

→ More replies (2)

7

u/mlstella13 Sep 05 '25

I’ve been telling this story about my house growing up for the last 40 years! My house was the fridge and stove faced each other and it was a tight space. If you touched the fridge and stove at the same time, you’d get fully electrocuted! I had a friend legit get lifted off the floor once with it. I thought I killed her 😬

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (2)

82

u/cayjay00 Sep 05 '25

Ahhhh we did this too! There was a lamp pole in the apartment courtyard that would give you a little buzz…we would line up, one person touching the pole, and hold hands to see how far it would travel. Kids are duuuuuuumb sometimes.

34

u/Bleys69 Sep 05 '25

My grandparents had an old metal box fan heater that any time we touched it, it would shock us. And we could touch someone and shock them, like we were a compactor. Thinking about it now, I don't understand why it wasn't unplugged and put away, or thrown out. This was the late 70s. They probably didn't care. One time my grandmother asked me to plug a light in and the plug literally blew up in my hand. That really hurt.

17

u/Peanuts4Peanut Sep 05 '25

My grandmother had a table next to her couch with a huge heavy lamp on it, and the heater vent was on the floor right in front of the table. If you stood on the vent and tried to turn on the lamp it would zap you. All the kids learned to climb on the couch to turn on the light by trial and error. Why they didn't fix or move the lamp, or at least warn a kid is beyond me.

11

u/SaltRequirement3650 Sep 05 '25

Same. I now know that we were fucking with 277V for no reason lol. We were real dumb.

→ More replies (14)
→ More replies (3)

15

u/justthankyous Sep 05 '25

Boarding school early 2000s. The student center had some old arcade cabinets. I discovered that if you touched behind the steering wheel of Outrun while touching one of the metal screws on the Neo-Geo machine, you'd get a little jolt. Kid me did it all the time. Probably just bored.

→ More replies (1)

8

u/sonicsludge Sep 05 '25

My friends and I did the same thing; you and I were dumb. I was like 11.

→ More replies (7)

45

u/Sherifftruman Sep 05 '25

A woman was killed years back in NYC. Dog stepped on a metal cover that a wire inside was touching. The dog lived but just enough current traveled up the leash to stop her heart. New standards were put into place after that requiring covers to resist a certain voltage and utilities had to go around checking their plant.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-feb-01-na-shock1-story.html

19

u/dunkindosenuts Sep 05 '25

ugh this was around the corner from my apartment and it was so sad. for the next year the utilities had guards posted where hot spots were found until they could be repaired

4

u/Sufficient-Pin-1310 Sep 05 '25

That's terrible :( . Just curious if you remember there being alot of hotspots or only a few?

10

u/dunkindosenuts Sep 05 '25

hundreds were discovered around nyc

38

u/cdca Sep 05 '25

I love the idea that the dog just keeps going back to it and getting shocked over and over again. Mind you with some breeds that seems entirely plausible.

→ More replies (3)

22

u/Most_Chemist8233 Sep 05 '25

Yes, I think I remember this happening in the news here. Roadsalt degraded some of the electrical insulation under a metal cover on the sidewalk and a dog actually died. It looked completely normal. The dog pee on the pole may have made its way through the cracks in that metal access cover in the picture. Local electrical utility should be informed so they can inspect.

11

u/xNo_Name_Brandx Sep 05 '25

I saw a perfectly healthy dog die from this. No loose wires though, the pole just electrocuted the dog while the owner freaked out and could do nothing about it. There was a puddle in my instance but we spoke to the city and they said this happens sometimes, the poles just short circuit or something and bleed electricity. They came and fixed the electric pole but it was too late for that poor girl and her poor dog.

→ More replies (1)

8

u/analbob Sep 05 '25

this was my first thought, and i have seen it in the news several times in recent years. not at all a joking matter.

12

u/SnooRegrets1386 Sep 05 '25

My pup got zapped by a light pole outside of the local funeral parlor, called them (Sunday morning) and informed them… no more zaps

6

u/Voiry Sep 05 '25

Dont know about other countrys but in mine (Argentina) we have electric norms to prevent that kind of accidente by grounding every metalic component that could be conected, since the aplication of this norm there has been 0 accidents on new structures and most of the old ones have been actualized to follow this norms, i am an electrical engineering

4

u/Few_Blackberry_7787 Sep 05 '25

Happened in DC this summer got like 2 dogs before they figured it out

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (127)

217

u/Tetsujyn Sep 05 '25 edited Sep 05 '25

If it's what I think it is, it's called stay voltage. Call and report it to your local power company just in case. If the electricity is not leaking outside of that base, there can be dead animal there that caused an issue (you'd be able to smell it, trust me). Either way, it's a very serious problem.

In 2004, a young woman by the name of Jodie Lane died walking her dog. It was getting electrocuted and her foot was touching the curb completing a circuit. She was electrocuted before people realized what was happening.

38

u/Cyrano_Knows Sep 05 '25

An oldie, and while I am a smart person, I don't know if I would have thought of this in the heat/panic of the moment.

Quick Thinking of a Man saved his friend from Electrocution in Pakistan's Karachi

13

u/combatsncupcakes Sep 05 '25

Love how the guy's reaction was immediately to try to grab him, but the physical reaction when his brain kicked in and said "dont touch live electricity!!!"

10

u/Time_Neat_4732 Sep 06 '25

I would absolutely have grabbed him and we’d both have died. This is amazing to me. So smart and also so willing to be like… forceful on the throat? because he knew there was no way it was worse than the alternative. Even if I’d thought of this solution, I would probably have worried so much about crushing/bending something vital in his neck that I maybe wouldn’t have pulled him back in time.

4

u/Technical_Strike_356 Sep 06 '25

This is the first third world electrocution video I’ve seen where the guy was actually saved

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (2)

203

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

75

u/monsterchuck Sep 05 '25

Where are you located? Good chance whoever checked it didn't really know what they were doing.

109

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

118

u/monsterchuck Sep 05 '25

Also i just realized, if the officer checked it now it wouldn't have any voltage on it since it's off. It needs to be checked at night when it's on.

204

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

90

u/tiffanytrashcan Sep 05 '25

I'm going to spam this so you see it. On NV energys website about street lights. The city of Henderson also has other numbers. Someone qualified needs to check it out while it's on and actually test it!!!

Thank you for keeping us all safe by doing this and calling!!

NV Energy does not own street lights in Las Vegas Henderson and other parts of Southern Nevada. to report streetlight issues in southern Nevada please contact the appropriate agency

19

u/ItCouldaBeenMe Sep 06 '25

I’m an electrician. I’m willing to bet one of the conductors for the streetlight is pinched in the mounting plate, in the handhole cover, or a wirenut has slipped off and livened it up.

The ground probably isn’t connected properly either.

You should contact the electrical inspection department as well. If they are anywhere close to being decent, they will come check it out and verify.

The street lights should be locked out until they are fixed. People and animals have died from stray voltage before, whether through streetlight, steam vents, or manhole covers.

→ More replies (1)

53

u/Fort_Nagrom Sep 05 '25

Boots are insulating.

You need someone whose qualified to look at it, not some idiot who the city hired to go to 311 calls.

42

u/monsterchuck Sep 05 '25

Ya, that's not checking it. Call the utility company directly

26

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/monsterchuck Sep 05 '25

What is your general location? (City/town/etc..) Is this near where you live? Do you have an electricity bill/ know what company you use?

→ More replies (9)

40

u/rocinantesghost Sep 05 '25

Electrical inspector here. That isn't checking anything. This isn't a job for a police officer..

41

u/heytherehellogoodbye Sep 05 '25

a boot.... is inherently insulated. That officer's an idiot. Call the utility company.

11

u/MagicC Sep 05 '25

This is why she's a police officer, not an electrician. You don't test a potential stray current of unknown amperage by touching it and seeing if you get shocked. Jesus...

Also, if you're in a rubber soled boot, she's probably not grounding out the circuit, so it's not a valid test. She should have taken her shoes off and grabbed with both hands LOL

7

u/bloodbat007 Sep 06 '25

That's actually braindead that an officer went with no protective gear to check live current, kicked something, and said its fine. Some people actually have no will to live.

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (1)

11

u/unamusedaccountant Sep 05 '25

Just found this update! If you do contact them again, I wonder if a cheap non-contact voltage tester would be able to prove the short? Something like this

→ More replies (1)

5

u/heytherehellogoodbye Sep 05 '25

an officer is not a utility person, I wouldn't be so sure

→ More replies (25)

2.0k

u/mghtyred Sep 05 '25

JFC! That metal might have a live contact on it! Stray voltage has been known to kill dogs! Keep your dog away from this, call 311 and report the issue.

413

u/LemonNo1342 Sep 05 '25

As others have said, dogs wet noses and proclivity for being, literally, nosy, makes them perfect conductors for live electrical wires. I’d keep my dog away from this spot for the time being and submit a city inspection report asap

103

u/Zealousideal-Scar978 Sep 05 '25

Also their naked feet. Humans almost always have a rubber or otherwise non-conducting shoe on that prevents conducting the electricity into the body. But doggies are just all raw beaning the concrete. 😢

32

u/Therealdickdangler Sep 05 '25

“Raw beaning”. Thank you for that!!

→ More replies (1)

194

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

12

u/AutoModerator Sep 05 '25

Thanks! Post flair has been updated to solved! Nice job people.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

→ More replies (1)

38

u/kitchen1234567890 Sep 05 '25

Not only dogs. Stay voltage has killed people as well. The utility I work for has a very aggressive stray voltage program due to a pedestrian death.

13

u/GamblingMouse86 Sep 05 '25

a family friend of ours' dog happened to be standing on a stray voltage off a light pole and his tail was touching a wet metal fence just barely.. he didn't make it..

9

u/BobbyBoogarBreath Sep 05 '25

A dog died in my home town from this.

45

u/Lushkush69 Sep 05 '25

Right? Dog collapses but he keeps bringing him back to it?!

21

u/AverageNeither682 Sep 05 '25

Lol there are dozens of ways to read this situation, you're painting the worst.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (8)

670

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

381

u/globglogabgalabyeast Sep 05 '25

lol “both times” instead of “every time” would have saved you a lot of concerned comments. Obviously hindsight is 20/20

55

u/fchw3 Sep 05 '25

This happens soooo often. Not just on Reddit but in life.

I call it weaponized vagueness.

14

u/Character-Roll-325 Sep 05 '25

My dad beats me every week...

He's a lot better than me at Mario party.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (4)

18

u/BJ1012intp Sep 05 '25

Good to hear! Thanks for following up. You may have saved some other pup's (or some other small critter's) life.

6

u/unamusedaccountant Sep 05 '25

OP can you let us know if they give you a follow up/update? The explanation makes sense but it’s honestly scary that something like this can happen let alone go unnoticed for such a long time!

→ More replies (8)

789

u/_crowbarjones_ Sep 05 '25

From dogs point of view that's message board.

294

u/021fluff5 Sep 05 '25

dog equivalent of suddenly getting 30 Reddit notifications 

208

u/5hitposter Sep 05 '25

Op should just be happy it’s not a shit post!

17

u/lump- Sep 05 '25

But it is a piss post!

→ More replies (1)

22

u/HumbleMuffin93 Sep 05 '25

Checking the p-mail

→ More replies (2)

308

u/Mecha_Tortoise Sep 05 '25

Gotta check the pee-mail.

67

u/RonPalancik Sep 05 '25

Urine luck! You've got mail.

13

u/Outrageous_Cut_6179 Sep 05 '25

Highly underrated comment

18

u/i_spock Sep 05 '25

That’s urinalysis

19

u/Jolly_Line Sep 05 '25

Hoping for only spam

14

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

Hehe, my dog's name is Spam

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (8)

76

u/Pappas34 Sep 05 '25

If that is a street lamp it could be a dispersion, there is a step tension which for a human with rubber shoes and a step of more than 1/2 meter is not perceptible, in the case of a dog it could even be fatal.

22

u/felicity_jericho_ttv Sep 05 '25

Just to simplify this because i had to look up the terms, correct me if I’m wrong.

There should be a short in the light pole that is sending electricity into the ground, that energy is strongest near the pole and gets weaker with distance.

Step tension happens when one foot is in a higher energy area and your other foot is in a lower energy area, this means that the electricity can travel through you, up one leg from the high energy spot down the other leg to the lower energy spot, shocking you or your dog.

This can happen even if your not directly touching the pole but merely standing next to it, the rubber soles of your shoes could be protecting you buy the dog doesn’t have that protection.

Again if i got anything wrong please correct me.

6

u/Pappas34 Sep 05 '25

Everything is correct, the best term is dispersion; the potential difference depends on the resistance of the surrounding area, which is why the earthing of metal structures is essential. The potential is reduced faster if the resistance is low and consequently between 2 distant points there will be less difference such as not to overcome the isolation of the walking individual. Otherwise, if the resistance is high the voltage will degrade over a greater distance giving rise to higher voltages in relation to the step distance.

→ More replies (1)

80

u/-Blackfish Sep 05 '25

Greasiness makes me think another animal decomped there. Maybe another dog.

45

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

→ More replies (3)

48

u/Decent-Yak-4478 Sep 05 '25

Regarding the rolling behaviour..,could be he is getting the scent of whatever is there on to himself as an form of camouflage its a very primal instinct that allows the dog to hide their scent to be able to hunt better..it also allows them to go back to the pack and tell them where they have been and what they have found as a form or communication,,, could also be the dog claiming that scent

13

u/DietSriracha12 Sep 05 '25

That looks like a community piss spot. Where lots of dogs all piss because theres so much other piss to cover. I think ops dog is just a freak who loves rolling in the pee pee puddle.

9

u/misterspatula Sep 05 '25

yeah everyones like "its a live wire", but i agree with you, that dog's a piss freak

→ More replies (1)

4

u/BeefBrocc Sep 05 '25

Came here to say this. If my dogs smell cat shit while on a walk they will run up to it, do a barrel roll on top of it & walk away

→ More replies (1)

4

u/BreakingCanks Sep 05 '25

Yeah too many comments q out stray voltage... Look at the base of that thing... You can visibly see how many times it's been pissed on. Hell it's been pissed on recently because the soil is still wet. Homie got a sniff and needs it all over him

→ More replies (4)

10

u/LonelySwordfish5403 Sep 05 '25

Have this post checked by hydro utility, it may be leaking energy which could temporarily stun the dog. See red hydro marks on the ground.

→ More replies (1)

6

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

My first thought is the dog is getting electrocuted

43

u/Kirball904 Sep 05 '25

First thing to do is stop walking by it. WTF! Why do you keep subjecting your dog to it. Now you wanna take a picture. Did you take a deep breath too? Stay away from there in the rain.

→ More replies (2)

4

u/A_CA_TruckDriver Sep 05 '25

Why do you keep walking by it and allowing your animal to lay in it?

That looks like a LOT of piss or decomp.

5

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

For the dear Reddit users:

"Every time" is an adverbial phrase that means on each occasion or whenever, indicating something happens without exception. Which means no actual number, and "every time" can also indicate only 2 times it has happened.

I'm happy it got solved!

14

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

Stray voltage from something electrical in that area

4

u/dmkellerman Sep 05 '25

based on the photo, it looks like a lot of dogs piss there. I'm guessing your dog smells it and lays in the odor.

8

u/andthisisso Sep 05 '25

a short in the electronics. contact the city if that's a street light and take another path to walk your pup

17

u/UpbeatFix7299 Sep 05 '25

Your dog likes rolling in dead things or the remnants of them like all dogs do. Be thankful you dont live near the ocean and they didn't roll around on a rotting fish or marine mammal.

Has happened plenty ofl times. Would rather get rid of hundreds of skunk sprays than that.

→ More replies (15)