Elephant Worker's Death During Pennsylvania Circus Stop Raises Personal Injury Questions
An animal rights group from California, In Defense of Animals, is challenging a Pennsylvania corner over his ruling that the death of circus worker Andrew Anderton was an accident. Luzerne County coroner John Corcoran ruled that Dumbo, a female African elephant, accidentally kicked his handler, killing him, while the Irem Shrine Circus was performing in Wilkes Barre last week. The animal rights group claims that while the handler's death may have been an accident, the kick was not.
According to an article appearing in the online edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Joyce Poole, spokeswoman for In Defense of Animals, said in her letter to the Pennsylvania coroner:
"With a body weighing six tons elephants are extremely careful and rarely do anything by accident. They have superior sense of hearing, an incredible sense of smell and they are able to detect minute vibrations via their feet. Dumbo would have known that Anderson was approaching her from behind; she would have been able to smell, feel and hear him."
In its letter, the animal right's group makes the argument that confining and chaining elephants creates stress that leads the animals to attack. The group claims that since 1990, elephant attacks in the U.S. have killed 14 people and injured 135.
Depending on your stance on animal rights, this story may seem silly or not, but the elephant is unlikely to be charged, To protect the legal rights of the deceased circus handler's family, Philadelphia personal injury lawyers would have to investigate the exact circumstances surrounding the accident as well as workplace safety issues and circus policies and practices that might have led to this tragic personal injury accident. Philadelphia personal injury attorneys are experts in digging through the emotional hysteria that surrounds fatal workplace accident to determine the facts and the fault of the accident.
