Opinions on electric fence, cruel or necessary?

I met one couple that had that around their place.  6 strands or more around the whole thing.  Only one of their dogs could time it and escape, a JRT.    But they also lived on somewhat of a hillside, completely surrounded by trees and such.  It seemed to work well for them and it only takes once for them to learn.  Plus it would keep OUT other animals, well, except squirrels, chipmunks, etc..

I don't know anything about electric fencing personally, but my first reaction is that it could be a safety issue. I would be concerned about kids in the neighborhood accidently touching the fence - or purposely throwing objects against it for fun. If left unsupervised your dog may get caught on the fence as well. Also other small animals like birds or squirrels may accidently get zapped. I'm not even sure they would be legal in an urban centre. JMHO

My horse used to be contained by an electric fence running around the pasture about a foot inside a regular fence.  I think if one was your only choice, it wouldn't be that bad.  The *zap* isn't too terrible. 
 
I got zapped on a couple occasions when I got too lazy to turn the fence off before going through it and tried to just carefully duck through the two strands.[8|]  It feels like you got kicked in the teeth by a horse (actually the first time I got zapped, I did think that's what happened for a second or so), but you recover pretty quick. 
 
I saw one dog get zapped, and he took off running around the barn for about 2 minutes, yipping.  But he was fine after, though he never went near that fence again. [] 
 
My horse got zapped once that I saw, and he reared up in the air and kicked the horse next tohim.  But other than that he was fine.  (Note that I was the only one stupid enough to get zapped twice. [&:])

Electric fencing of this type is usually used for larger animals--horses, cattle, and such.  It works well for them because of their more docile nature, they hit it once and back off.  Dogs with a strong prey drive may not react as calmly when there's something on the other side of the fence they need to get at.  I know that some owners of very large dogs have a line of electric fence atop their chain link or wooden fencing to stop jumping.  But, I don't like to see even that bit of it around, the wiring for it looks like a terrible strangulation risk for dogs.  

If run right, the fence is actually pretty taught so no risk of strangulation is involved.  And like Jensw said, they only did it once.  There are signs you can buy to put on the fence to let humans know about the zap.  I wouldn't use one in an urban area either but the folks I saw with it lived more in the country and didn't have close neighbors.    Birds are not at risk because they are not touching the ground.  Think of hawks, doves, etc sitting on electric lines running through the air.  If a human touched those while in contact with the ground somehow, ZAP!!  But the birds are fine because they are not touching the ground.  And most electric fences are pulses, not constant like electricity wires, hence the JRT that learned how to time it and get out.

If you live where there are moose and bear realize that both those animals will walk right through an electric fence if there is something on the other side they really want. Up here electric is sometimes used to discourage moose from eating your garden, but if they want it bad enough, they are big enough to just plow right through it.

I've heard about bulls waiting until a rainy day came, then propping a wet stick on the wires to ground out the fence and then calmly walking through it.[:@] It happened to a friend of mine with a Jersey bull.

I asked because I put one up two days ago. Beau is not a concern, he never attempted to escape. But Sasha is VERY good at escaping. She has busted the boards on a 6 foot fence twice. She hasn't bothered with the chain link yet.
 
Here's my situation. We rescued Sasha from the humane society a week ago. She does not take being confined very well. First day being left alone, she was left in the house. No problems what so ever. She was an angel and the house was exactly how I left it. Second day alone, I tried the back yard. Which is where Beau spends the day if it's nice while i'm at work. She escaped by the front gate, and was missing for a couple of hours until my mother inlaw checked the answering machine and found out she was across the street.
 
The third day she had to be left in the house with the risk of her breaking out of the yard again. She broke the fish tank, tore up every curtain in the house, and almost busted a window. This was a shock after how well she behaved the first time in the house. She then proceeded to OPEN the back window, and hop out. Then she broke out of the yard from that point, and ended up with some nice people who called to let us know they had her.
 
This can not happen. She is going to get killed, stolen, or may possibly (even though there's no mean bone in her body) hurt some one. I don't want to crate her on such nice days. When it starts raining in the next few months, I'll crate her in the house with Beau, but for now, they have free run of the yard.
 
I'm not in the big city, nor am I out in the woods. My only two neighbors are very good friends of mine. Actually one is my mother inlaw. The other lady baby sat my children for about a year. Anyways, there is NO threat of people harming the dogs. They don't bark hardly at all, so they don't bother any neighbors further down the street. Our lot consists of 4 houses. Mine is in the very back. The one next to me is vacant, and the people moving in have two pitbulls. The people in front love our dogs.
 
The yard is completely surrounded with fencing. The front with the gate is 6' privacy fence. The sides are privacy fence as well. The back of the yard is 6' chain link. No children will ever have access to the yard. My kids have the front yard to play in.
 
Sasha has started personal training. I'm hoping after $175 and lots of works we can trust her, and take the electric fencing down. But at this point, I feel the only way to contain her, without a crate, is the electricity. I have tested the lines many times. It takes about 2 to 3 seconds to actually shock, and it's very mild. It's not comfortable, but I don't want her to be comfortable when her face is down to the ground trying to dig out. The lines are about 8 inches from the ground, and about half way up the fence. So far, with my mother inlaw checking on them frequently, I know that the lines are working. Sasha has yet to get out.
 
And when we return home from work... the dogs come out and the lines are turned off. They aren't turned back on unless we have to go somewhere (shopping, etc) or it's time for me to head to work again.
 
I'm glad that I'm not 100% evil in this case. It had to be done.

I accidentally touched electric fencing once... it felt like something really heavy had just fallen on my head! >@_@<

I'm no expert, but it sounds like a good solution to me. []

When I was very little and we lived in the country, I once peed on one and alothough I was young I remember it didn't feel very well[8D]

Oh Garrett! That musta REALLY smarted!!

I accidentally grabbed an electric fence once. My arm spasmed for a sec then I let go... I never did it again [].

We use some electric fence for our cattle and horses, and I have touched it a few times. Sure does give you a shock! [] But there is no harm from it that I know of, and it definitely does teach the dogs to stay away from, it once they get zapped. We put some eletric wire around the bottom of the chickens' pen, to make sure the dogs didn't bother them. Cassidy got zapped once and she wouldn't go near it for a long time! Also, last summer, since Cassidy is outside when we are gone, she would sometimes rip the screens on the windows that she could reach ( from the outside) so she could go in and lay on the couch! (By the way, she felt the same way about being in; if we left her inside then she would try to get out, or else she sometimes gets into things since she doesn't like to be contained) So anyway, we put a strand of electric wire along the windows, so that if she tried to scrath them she would get shocked. And that worked too, so she was leary about going near those biting windows again! So it sounds like a good plan to me. 

We'll, theres always good things and bad things that could happen.  On the bright side, you won't have to worry about your dog escaping.  On the dark side, you might end up scaring the dog so that she won't want to be outside.
 
If you feel you need it, you probably do.  Just be careful and don't make the shock too strong.  Just enough to discourage her from leaving.
 
Good luck.