A rare albino buffalo nicknamed "Donald Trump" for its flowing blond forelock has been saved from ritual slaughter in Bangladesh after a last-minute government intervention, following an extraordinary surge of public interest that turned the animal into a nationwide — and international — celebrity.
The nearly 700-kilogram bull had been raised on a farm near Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital, and sold ahead of Eid al-Adha — the Islamic "feast of the sacrifice", observed on Thursday — when it would ordinarily have been slaughtered as part of the holiday's traditions. But videos of the buffalo's distinctive golden tuft, widely compared online to the signature hairstyle of US President Donald Trump, spread rapidly across social media in the days before the festival. Crowds began travelling from across the country to the farm simply to see the animal, and composite images pairing the buffalo with the president circulated widely. Some visitors were filmed playfully combing its forelock. The farm owner, Ziauddin Mridha, said it was his younger brother who first gave the animal its name, spotting the resemblance immediately.
As public fascination mounted, Bangladesh's Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed ordered authorities to intervene. Police retrieved the buffalo from its new buyer, who was refunded, and the animal was transferred to Dhaka's National Zoo. "At the last moment, the decision was taken to spare the buffalo from sacrifice due to security concerns and the unusual level of public interest," a ministry official said. The zoo's curator, Atiqur Rahman, confirmed the buffalo would be quarantined for two weeks before being housed in a dedicated shed with an assigned caregiver.
Albinism is exceptionally rare among buffaloes in Bangladesh, where most cattle are dark-coated, making the animal a striking anomaly during the peak Eid livestock season. More than 12 million animals — including goats, sheep, cows and buffaloes — are expected to be sacrificed across Muslim-majority Bangladesh during the holiday, which for many poorer families represents a rare opportunity to eat meat.
The story illustrates how viral attention can have real-world consequences in unexpected ways. What began as an ordinary Eid purchase became a test of the tension between religious tradition and public sentiment — resolved, in this case, by a buffalo's uncanny resemblance to a world leader.