I do not think there was much the cops could do. As much as I love animals and hate hearing about them being shot, this was a disaster. You had 50 animals running around residential neighborhoods and it was going to be dark in about an hour.
I'm amazed no one died and one human life would have been too many considering they lost none by shooting.
Cops don't have 100+ tranquilizer darts on hand. Hell the zoo probably only has 10 or 20 and the closest zoo was 40+ miles away in Columbus.
Even then, if you shoot a tiger with a tranquilizer, he gets pissed off for 2-4 minutes before going to sleep. How the hell do you do that in a neighborhood?
It sucks, but I think shooting them was the best option.
Sean