I am being highly critical because it was a dumb thing to do.
Actually the dumb thing was done by the FIRST soldier.
Why not fire a warning shot? Oh no, that wouldn't do would it ...
Maybe a warning shot was fired but the Tiger didnt know what a gunshot was and that it was a danger to it.
We just dont know if the second soldier was saving the first from his own stupidity, or over - reacted and shot un-necessarily, the news story does not give enough information for anyone to make a firm judgement on this.
Also anyone who has been in a hostile situation will know that it is impossible to ' wind down ' just like that, the tension lasts for a long time, even in a ' safe ' environment, so over-reaction is entirely possible.
The fact that the tiger was shot is deplorable, but there is not enough information about the whole story to aportion blame(apart from to the first soldier) until all the facts are in.
Also, the story in the news is told by one man, are we sure that he is not biased in some way?
All anyone can say at this point is that the first one was an idiot for going near the cage at all.
Edited to add
The tiger was acting on instinct
True, but then, so was the soldier who shot it.
Still a waste though.