Jenjscott: No, it is not a steady-on fence. It is a standard fence energizer.
harewizard: The fence energizer, simply put, works on a R-C (resistor-capacitor) circuit. Household electricity, 120VAC, is transformed via a transformer and a bridge rectifier to a DC voltage, I am not sure of the DC voltage level in this case. The DC voltage charges a capacitor (much like a battery) thru a resistor until a predetermined voltage level is achieved, i.e. 1000VDC. When a conductive object (RAT) creates a bridge between the output of the capacitor and ground the voltage is discharged thru the conductive object (RAT). At this point the capacitor must recharge for about 1 second before it can deliver another discharge. If you ever trip and fall on top of an electric fence you will notice, much to your discomfort, that you get a jolt about every second until you can get off the fence.
In this case, I assume that the rat reached out from the concrete block to grab the fence...it bit him....he decided to bite back and got locked up in the continuous recharge/zap/recharge/zap of the fence as his tail was touching the ground (the end of which was burnt black). I only used the pliers to avoid touching a very possibly flea/lice/disease infested critter.
