The reasoning goes something like this: By the time someone went for the tranquilizer gun and got the vet, the swallowed woman would have suffocated. Even if one of the zoo employees bravely leapt into the pen and tried to cut her out, the odds are they still wouldn't get her out in time. And that's assuming the happily full anteater didn't hold them at bay with its claws for long enough that rescue was pointless. The zoo employee too might get eaten if this is attempted with a pred large enough to want another meal. That pred might even be Rudy as he once ate two people one after the other.

This is why there are now signs at the zoo that say "If you get yourself into trouble here, you'll have to find your own way out." The woman's way out will involve a tour of Rudy's digestive tract.