12 Volts DC electric fence to deter cats

[fixmyself]

I have cats coming to my lawn and poop which is very annoying. I tried couple of methods to stop them but to no avail. I am planning to use an old 12 Volts DC transformer from an old printer and connect the negative and the positive to two bare and horizontal wires 6 inches apart, making it like a 6" 2-wire fence. When the cats comes to cross the "fence", it will get electrical shock. Any thought about the effectiveness of this setup? I believe the voltage is not enough to kill them which I don't mean to. Is that correct? Thanks.

[joed]

Not likely to kill them but also not likely to shock them. 12VDC is not enough to shock.

[fixmyself]

Joed,

As you said 12 volts might not be enough. Now, I plan to use a 18 Volts transformer to connect to two separate horizontal bare wires about 4" apart acting as a fence to zap cats coming to my lawn and poop. I just have a question. Assuming, it is able to shock the cat and the cat may turn around and mess up the wiring creating a short circuit. Will the short circuit causes a fire? Thanks.

[joed]

That cat will jump over it after the first shock if it even gets shocked.

This is just a bad idea no matter how you do it.

[suemarkp]

18V is hardly better than 12V. They make electric fence controllers and that is what you should use. They make the hundreds of volts required and pulse and limit the current so you don't lethally shock a person or animal.