it is tragic accidents and in the case of judy a humane decision. the ZPB of NSW does have a long history of keeping elephants which have attained remarkable ages, conducts it very succesful rhino breeding programs and only 3 weeks ago was celebrating the 60th birthday of fifi the chimpanzee, one of 3 great apes to reach or be close to this milestone age.
in addition, taronga has or had long-lived tigers, lions, kodiak bears, giraffes, seals, just to name a few. i dont think taronga or western plains zoo are in any way bad at what they do, although i will say that the orang enclosure would now be looking kinda empty, wouldnt it?