Maybe Op's kid rips up flowers or climbed over the other fence. It could also be, "If a five year old can get into my yard, maybe older kids can."

I got left alone to play all the time. Kids need stuff like that. What's next? Gonna say stuff like,"don't drink out the house?"

If it's the same kind as for horses it's really not so bad. I get shocked every now and then, just a sudden jolt and tingles where I touched. Kind of like the shock collars for dogs I bet

Electric fences, even for livestock, aren't lethal. Super painful, but you'll be fine unless you have a heart condition.

The neighbour can't know if the kid has a heart condition or not so even if it was just supposed to be painful it's still pretty irresponsible...

But it's not the responsibility of the neighbor to know about the kid. If the neighbor felt that he had to put up an electric fence to get privacy from OP's son, that's on OP. She should be watching him carefully, and from the neighbors actions, it seems like she hasn't been. It doesn't really matter how old he is, the kid isn't entitled to trespass on his neighbors property, and OP needs to make it clear to him that he needs to stay in their own yard. My next door neighbor has a 5 year old and a 7 year old and we had this problem with them last year. Our yard is bigger than theirs, so instead of playing in their yard, they'd come play in ours, and they'd end up looking through our windows, climbing on parts of the house, messing up our yard by digging, and drawing all over our driveway with chalk. We kept asking our neighbors to keep them in their own yard, but their reaction was one of "Oh their kids! its what they do! Just let them have their fun!" It would have been fine if they weren't messing up our yard/driveway, but they were, and we were constantly getting fined by our neighborhood for damage that they caused to our yard. We eventually called the police on them and that's when they stopped. You never really know what's actually happening based just on the FML. The next door neighbor could've easily been in the same situation my family was in.

Obviously the kid should not be going on their property but surely the fence will border both properties? Therefore he could touch it and so is in potential danger even just playing in his own yard? Unless there's space between the two properties, but I was thinking of two gardens with one fence separating them. Maybe that's where we're getting different opinions. Personally I wouldn't want to risk killing a child even if it would technically be their fault.

My grandmother had an electric fence. It felt like you were being pinched.

It's not voltage but amperage that kills you. Voltage is what gives you that tingly feeling. Any electric fence would likely have an amperage close to zero so as not to present any danger to any living thing, but would have a high enough voltage to deter anyone who touches it. This child is in no danger.

If that's the case then that's not ao bad. My concern was the effect on people with heart conditions as brought up by

37. I know tasers and some electrical products can be dangerous but I'm not sure what affect fences have. If you're sure they'd be okay then I'm cool with that. (obviously it's not the nicest way to deal with issues but I'm guessing the guy tried a lot of other things before resorting to this)