In the early hours of Earth Day, the bronze beast of Broadway—the iconic 7,100-pound Wall Street Bull—became the latest canvas for climate protest. Activists from Extinction Rebellion staged a dramatic, if short-lived, stunt in New York City’s financial district, spray-painting the words “Greed = Death” across the statue’s side and attaching faux feces to its rear in a bizarre and theatrical jab at capitalism.
But just as quickly as the act was carried out, it was wiped away.
The protest unfolded near dawn Monday, when members of the group descended on the statue armed with green spray paint, props, and a script of climate slogans. In a stunt meant to fuse environmental outrage with economic critique, the activists also draped brown, debris-filled stockings behind the statue—an attempt to create the image of the bull defecating on a cutout of planet Earth.
NOW: "Greed=Death" tagged on the Charging Bull in NYSE by Climate activists with Extinction Rebellion, on the National Earth Day. pic.twitter.com/qtEoZmD4jd
— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 22, 2025
The message was clear, if not subtle: capitalism, symbolized by the charging bull, is in their eyes the driving force behind environmental collapse and global inequality. In a post on social media, Extinction Rebellion doubled down: “We came to Wall Street to call out the bullshit... #GreedIsDeath.”
But the bravado met an unexpected twist. According to witnesses and media reports, one activist perched atop the bull’s neck was quickly told by police to climb down. The group, seemingly spooked, pivoted to damage control—literally. They frantically scrubbed the statue clean before backup officers even arrived.
No arrests were made. No lasting damage reported. But the spectacle made its mark.
The Wall Street Bull, officially known as “Charging Bull,” has long been a magnet for anti-capitalist sentiment. Created by Italian-American artist Arturo Di Modica and placed without permission in front of the New York Stock Exchange in 1989, the statue was originally meant as a tribute to the resilience of American financial markets. Over the years, it’s become both a selfie magnet and a symbol of financial excess.
Wall Street Bull painted over by environmental activists — who frantically cleaned it up when cops came https://t.co/ldkrDngmM4 pic.twitter.com/rBPiqR3if2
— New York Post (@nypost) April 22, 2025
And protesters have noticed. From climate activists to anti-Trump demonstrators, the bull has been bashed, painted, and protested. In one memorable 2019 incident, a man wielding a silver guitar screamed political expletives before smashing one of the statue’s horns—an act that landed him in NYPD custody.