Taronga’s first concern is always for the welfare and dignity of the 4,000 remarkable animals in our care.It’s never easy when making decisions about euthanasia, and a huge amount of care and consideration goes into every such decision.A combination of experts including keepers, veterinarians and curators are consulted in a comprehensive process that explores all possible options.The Zoo breeds to defined targets so that an excess of animals does not occur.  Even where an animal’s genetics may be over-represented, we seek to re-home the animal in a non-breeding situation regionally or internationally.An example is the recent transfer of Taronga’s aging silverback gorilla to Mogo Zoo near Bega, along with senior females and their offspring. Australasian zoos cooperate to hold excess or non-breeding animals.Taronga does not conduct autopsies in public.