Sounds like a case of either passing the buck for the sake of political correctness,lack of common sense or squimishness or a little of all three.
It doesn't take a brain surgeon to know when an animal, dear,bear,dog,or cat needs to be put down,but I suppose it's better to try to pass the buck than to ruffle the feathers of a few peta/treehugger types with their tender feelings who might have been witnesses and the lawyer waiting in the wings for that "traumatic " legal case.
I'm willing to bet that was the main problem in this incident.