In article ,
zoe rothwell wrote:
[...]
Equines and electric;

As for the earlier comment on why it took so long for the horses to
die if it was electricity - electricity can stop the heart and can
interfere with the nervous system, but it is not always an immediate
effect of death. Potential difference across the heart can cause it
the fibrilate (flutter) or stop altogether, so the first doesn't kill
the animal for a very long time, if at all eg Kid Cassidy could have
been affected in this way. The second (heart stopping) is a slower way
of dying than you'd think - it's possible to have a human's heart stop
for several seconds at a time, many times a day as they age (in
certain heart conditions) and for the person not to die. Horses are on
a larger scale but I expect it works in the same way. So electrocution
is very much possible.

In both humans and horses, if the ventricles of the heart
fibrillate, they effectively stop pumping blood immediately,
cardiac output drops to zero (or near as damn it) and blood
pressure starts to plummet. Within a very few seconds in the case
of humans, brain function is depressed so much that consciousness
is lost and they keel over. A human heart stopping for as long
as several seconds would almost certainly result in fainting.
I have no reason to believe that it wouldn't be the same for
horses.

(At what point the person actually dies, assuming the heart
doesn't resume normal beating, is hard to say and is somewhat
academic.)

Francis