Electric fencing?

[SHRED]

I have a small, drip system, veggie garden in my small urban backyard.
To keep out the cats (pooping), opossums, skunks, and raccoons I was thinking of two strands of electric fence wire.
One say about 2" and the other about 10" off the ground?

Anyone have experience with electric fences?
My Dad had them when I was a kid for the horses and they jolt pretty good.

Anywhere to point me on the web?

Here are the "specs" so far:

Hunter Pro-C controller with Solar Sync Sensor
Irritrol 311A series anti-siphon valves
Toro 1/2" drip tube
Agrifim 1/4" Dura-Flo Jr dripperline @ 6" spacing in circles around each plant.

Organic basil, oregano, Romain lettuce, cilantro, tomatoes, bell type and cayene peppers, cucumbers, strawberries, and squash for now.
Great sandy draining soil here so I amended with organic based mulch and mixed a couple of handfuls of Gro-Power fertilizer.


--

[Kolesar]

1. Zareba brand keeps the pests out of our garden

"Safe for humans and pets"
http://www.tractorsupply.com/pet-care/zareba-systems-reg-k9-electric-fence-controller-3604057

[Xithras]

2. I have a Fi-Shock battery operated electric fence for the cats

I like cats, but they always see my freshly turned raised beds as giant litter boxes. I spent about $120 on the fence a few years ago and haven't had a problem since.

If you go this route, you'll want to pick up a few rechargeables. The fence takes a couple of D cell batteries, and they only last about a week. Luckily, the cats around my house are fairly smart and generally figure it out after a week or two. They stop "testing" the fence, and I can just turn it off. The moment I take the wire down they're right back into it, but they won't mess with it when they see the wire there.

Cats apparently don't have the greatest long term memory though. We do have to repeat the process every spring.

[LWolf]

3. It's hard to keep small critters out with electric fencing.

The tape or wire would have to be pretty low, assuming nothing would dig under, with strands pretty close together, going high enough to prevent jumping.

They are common place rurally; they can be a fence all by themselves for horses, cows, sheep, etc., or they can protect a fence from cows, or they can bolster a weak fence; it's costly to fence in large areas.

My electric fence is rarely on; just the site of the string keeps the horses from leaning on or kicking the fence.

If you are in a more populated area where electric fence isn't common, be careful about using it on a perimeter fence. In the 90s, I was living in the Mojave Desert with zero neighbors. A family built a house across from my place and down the road. Since my dogs regularly dug under our fence, we put an electric wire on the inside, about 6" off the ground, to keep them from digging out since there were actual neighbors to harass. The new neighbors didn't restrain their dog, though; it dug under the fence and got stuck one day. The wife reached inside the fence to pull him back, touched the hot wire, and sued us. It took 3 years before the court system finally threw her suit out. Electric fence was uncommon in that area, and nobody seemed to know how to deal with it in court.

No harm came to the wife or the dog; my boys used to touch it on purpose.

Anyway, you could try using some plastic "step in" posts; I can get them locally, and they are also available here:

http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php?prod_id=440&cat_id=47