A statue of a urinating pug has joined a heated art row on Wall Street in New York.

The artist Alex Gardega installed Pissing Pug, alternatively known as Sketchy Dog, as an act of defiance against the Fearless Girl statue that was erected earlier this year next to the Charging Bull, installed in 1985.

Fearless Girl, designed by the artist Kristen Visbal, was intended to be a comment on gender inequality, appearing on the eve of International Women’s Day, but caused the bull’s sculptor, Arturo Di Modica, to claim his work had been hijacked and the meaning subverted.

Alex Gardega told the New York Post: “It has nothing to do with feminism, and it is disrespect to the artist that made the bull ... That bull had integrity.”

He referred to it as “corporate nonsense” that was masquerading as art but was in fact commissioned by State Street Global Advisors, one of the world’s largest banks. “It was made by a billion-dollar financial firm trying to promote an index fund,” he told NBC News. “It is advertising/promotion in the guise of art. That was my only point.”

The bank denies this and has reiterated the importance of the statue. “Fearless Girl was created to stand as a reminder that having more women in leadership positions positively contributes to overall performance and strengthens our economy,” a statement reads.

The Pissing Pug statue has sparked negative reactions online, with the women’s advocate Amy Siskind referring to Gardega as “every white guy who can’t stand that he has to compete with women and PoC in America” and the official Women’s March Twitter feed referring to it as an act of “male fragility”. The actor Debra Messing called the statue “disgusting,”, calling the artist a “misogynistic, pathetic bastard”.

After three hours, Gardega decided to take his statue down because he didn’t want to leave it and see it taken by someone else. Di Modica, the bull sculptor, has yet to file a lawsuit but his lawyers are demanding to see the documents that were used by city officials to place Fearless Girl next to his statue.