Down the rabbit hole: Bangladeshi buffalo ‘Trump’ pardoned – brief history of animal sacrifices

We live in the era of viral animals, from Larry the Cat, the permanent fixture at 10 Downing Street, to Moo Deng, the cute pygmy hippo in Thailand, and Punch, the lonely monkey whose inability to make friends made the world go aww. Donald Trump the buffalo might be the latest addition to this pantheon. But long before the algorithm turned animals into celebrities, humans were already turning them into gods, omens, sacrifices, scapegoats and pardoned prisoners.