Elephant blamed in circus fatality - that was the headline in the evening newspaper tonight.

The circus was getting ready to leave town. Handlers were loading elephants in a truck Monday afternoon, a routine event for them. With the last elephant in the truck, two handlers left a third to finish closing the gate. It took awhile for anyone to notice that the man had been injured, apparently crushed in some mortal way. By the time he arrived at the hospital, it was too late.

A tragedy caused by that most human of sins: Assumption, the carelessness that is brought on by routine due to the expectation that nothing will go wrong. An unnecessarily sad story.

So I'm listening to a commercial for the 11PM news sometime this evening, and here's what they say (or something close to it):

"An animal handler was killed yesterday by an elephant as the circus was preparing to leave town. We'll hear what local animal rights activists have to say about the tragedy tonight at eleven."

What?