Electric fences protect livestock from predators but can injure wildlife when poorly designed, and predator-proof fence design can minimize both predation and wildlife welfare impacts.
Wildlife tangled in electric fences experience repeated shocks, physical injury from struggling, and prolonged suffering if not found quickly. Animals that survive initial entanglement may die days later from injuries or predation while incapacitated. Poorly sited fences bisect wildlife movement corridors, forcing dangerous road crossings. Predator-proof kraals and bomas that protect livestock while maintaining permeable fencing for non-predator wildlife represent a welfare-positive alternative that reduces retaliatory killing of predators while minimizing wildlife fence injuries.