If you've ever seen the large bronze bull sculpture in downtown Vancouver, you may have stopped to admire it.
If you did more than admire it, however, you might have been caught on camera.
While it is a striking piece, many locals and tourists are drawn to it for another purpose. People often attempt to mount the bull, and sometimes they'll try it after a night of drinking, which is especially dangerous.
Most recently, vandals tagged the word GREED on the torso of the statuesque beast. Henry Goldbeck, President and Chief Executive Officer of Goldbeck Recruiting, took to Twitter to share an image of the graffiti being removed, as well as to note that the bull isn't connected to Wall Street in New York City.
"It has been connected falsely to Merrill Lynch and Wall Street for years," he tells Vancouver Is Awesome, adding that it was actually commissioned by Gordon Robert Diamond, Chairman, West Coast Reduction Ltd. and Austeville Properties Ltd., who owns the BC Turf Building.
West Coast Reduction takes in animal by-products, such as fat, offal and blood and turns them into products such as tallow (processed animal fat) oil and meals.
Goldbeck says he often gives the bull a little tap for good luck as he heads into his office, too.
Vandals spray painted GREED on the bull outside our building last night.
— Goldbeck Recruiting (@GoldbeckRecruit) March 9, 2021
The bulls is often, mistakenly, connected to Merrill Lynch and Wall Street. In reality, the Diamond family have owned a livestock related business in #Vancouver since the 1930s and are art collectors. pic.twitter.com/Nfb9ndmU2B
Royal Sweet Diamond
Titled “Royal Sweet Diamond," the bull was sculpted by late Canadian artist Joe Fafard in 1999 and installed in front of 475 West Georgia in 2000.
Fafard's bull replaces a more abstract figure of a horse, by the late jack Harman, sited there for many years.
Vancouver artist Katsumi Kimoto has been an art curator and dealer for the last two decades. He takes care of the bull and tells V.I.A. that the sculpture has been vandalized several times but this year was particularly bad.
"The bull has some years where nothing happens to it at all and then a number a years ago someone cut off its tail. We sent the tail to the artist and he actually sent back a bigger, thicker tail," he explains.
"He knew would be a lot harder to cut off."
Other times people vandalized the bull's eyes, but Kimoto says the bull has a protective coating that allows him to remove this more easily.
A mare and a colt by Joe Fafard at Bayshore Drive in Coal harbour were vandalized in the summer of 2020, too.
Kimoto, who knew Fafard, adds, "He had a great sense of humour, he was French Canadian, and he was very prolific. Even if he was just watching TV with his kids he would be moulding a little horse or something," he explains.
The Canadian Encylopedia notes that, "Joe Fafard was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1981; awarded the Architectural Institute of Canada Allied Arts Award in 1987; received an honorary Degree from the University of Regina in 1989, and from the University of Manitoba in 2007; received the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in 2002; received the National Prix Montfort in 2003; received the Lieutenant Governor's Saskatchewan Centennial Medal for the Arts in 2005."
A sculpture of a horse, a monkey and a dog at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design is also by Fafard.
