Everyone loved Goody the Bull
Agriculture museum announces the death of massive but gentle Hereford
Goody the Bull is dead, leaving an empty pen in the barn where his 2,500 pounds of red-and-white gentleness dominated for 16 years.
Bulls aren’t often calm, so the massive Hereford at the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum stood out that way.
“It’s nice to see, especially for a museum,” said museum spokeswoman Ciara Cronin.
“I was talking to one of the farmers (Friday) about why he was so remarked upon, and it was his sheer size.”
He also reached the venerable age of 18, “so there are stories of families that have been visiting Goody every week for the past 10 years or so.”
Children “loved him,” she said. “I think it’s just how big he is, how close you could get.”
Contact with the animals isn’t permitted, but children could see at very close range what more than a tonne of beef looks like.
The museum bought him in 1999 because the farm didn’t have a bull for display and it was opening a new barn. (They even know his birthday: Jan. 8, 1997. He used to get a birthday cake made of hay.)
Goody didn’t have to do much as a museum attraction. He wasn’t a research animal, and he wasn’t used extensively for breeding, although he sired several dozen calves over his career.
In recent years Goody had been fading. He was probably down about 200 pounds from his peak size, and the staff all knew he wouldn’t last forever.
Then on Canada Day they found him lying in his pen and unable to get up.
The vet found he had appendicitis and he was too old to treat, so they put him down.
People are writing tributes online and also bringing cards to attach to his pen.
“And we welcome visitors to visit the farm this weekend and leave a card for Goody if they wish, in his pen.”
“We knew it was coming. He was quite old, and we’ve been prepared for it for a while,” Cronin said. “But people all have their memories of Goody, especially staff who have been here since he arrived. They’ve never known the museum without Goody, so it’s a little nostalgic.”