800 pound bears have been taken down with tranquilizers. You could easily take down a tiger with a tranquilizer. so yes they had a choice. Its just man trying to be superior and flex their muscles by destroying other living things.
As the animal expert said... and something you should consider... lions and tigers and bears can kill a human.. I know.. it's hard for you to swallow... but just take his word on it for now.. They can kill a human in less time than it takes for you to shout "Holy shit! Somebody shoot th......!!" and the reality is a tranq dart doesn't work very fast even when you hit the perfect spot. So in the minutes it takes to put the animal down, provided you get a good shot, billy, tommy and little alice are now cadavers and you will be on this board saying "Why didn't the cops shoot the damn things instead of ...."
What people do in the wild, where there is very little populace to worry about is apples and oranges to tigers loose in a city.
But yes, a tragic event nonetheless