32. Angry, Angry, Hippo

People deal with traumatic events in many different ways. This 19th-century town decided to process their collective trauma by facing it head-on. A carnival was traveling through the countryside, and during a stop in a small, unnamed town, a hippopotamus escaped and went absolutely wild. This ended up having tragic consequences. 

Unfortunately, the hippo ended up killing some people and a lot of livestock in the town. Instead of shunning the hippo and pretending this tragic event never happened, the town adopted the hippo as a mascot. This seems pretty weird and counter-intuitive, but they did it to revere the ferocity of this animal. It’s a weird way to cope, but we kind of get it.