El Paso Zoo elephant ‘Juno’ wages courageous battle against cancer

Animals suffer many of the diseases humans do. Breast cancer is one of them and like in humans, it can come back.

As part of breast cancer awareness month, ABC-7 re-visited with “Juno,” El Paso’s favorite pachyderm who is on a cancer journey.

Juno’s home is decorated this month with pink wreaths and ribbons with words like courage, hope and cure.

Three years ago Juno began acting strangely, she was having a tough time lifting her trunk and kept throwing dirt behind her front legs. That’s where her mammary glands are located and that’s when her keeper Brittany Drake noticed a lump.

Juno was 50-years-old then, and like a lot of women at this age, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Juno has undergone three electro-chemotherapy treatments, and she’ll soon undergo a fourth treatment — but this time it will include gene therapy.

KVIA 2019