Is This Art? Or Animal Abuse? Animal And Dog Lovers Be Warned…
October 18th, 2007 | by Ginnie | (Visited 645,242 times)Related Animal Abuse Stories On The GinBlog:
- US Soldiers Throwing Puppies Off Cliffs and Shooting Dogs
- Shocking Images of Chinese and Philippine Horse Fighting – Equestrians and Animal Lovers Beware…
Recent Updates To This Story:
- From Raven of HelpingAnimals.com (4/24/08):
I wrote to PETA about this, and this is their response:
Many stories-sometimes conflicting-have been circulating about these events, and it has been difficult to verify the reports that we’ve received.
Because the initial exhibit with the dog took place in Nicaragua, which has no cruelty-to-animals laws, Vargas cannot be charged with a crime at this time.Our investigations department is aware that Vargas will participate in a show in Honduras in November. It has been reported that a Honduran group, the Honduras Association for the Protection of Animals and their
Environment (AHPRA), has secured the event organizers’ word that the event rules will prohibit animal abuse. PETA’s caseworkers are monitoring this situation and will take further action if we get word that Vargas plans to repeat the exhibit with the dog. People often
commit heinous acts in a bid to gain attention, so it is important to refrain from encouraging them by giving them the attention that they clearly crave. For more thoughts on this issue, please visit
http://blog.PETA.org/archives/2008/04/artist_starving.php.Exactly what happened at the exhibition in Nicaragua last year may be uncertain, but it is clear that millions of homeless animals are at risk of starvation, disease, violence and death in our own communities right now. To learn more about things you can do to make a difference for these animals, visit http://www.HelpingAnimals.com
- NBC10 Webisode Video on Vargas (Thanks Jim!)
This is one of those things you come across and just have to blink a couple times and ask, “is this real?”. In fact it is.
Guillermo Habacuc Vargas had 2 children catch this dog. He paid the kids for this. He then chained the dog and used the dog as “art”. He told everyone not to feed this dog. The dog died in the gallery. He calls himself an artist. I call him an animal abuser. In that event, (in which the dog died) he was chosen to represent his country in the “Bienal Centroamericana Honduras 2008″.
There is a petition to ban him from this event, which you can visit by clicking this link.
After reading that and digging around, I found this site with a little more information on the incident:
A Costa Rican artist found himself in hot water with the animal protection people in his home country after using a starving, sick street dog as part of an exposition in Managua, Nicaragua, in August. Guillermo “Habacuc” Vargas allegedly found the dog tied up on a street corner in a poor Nicaragua barrio and brought it to the showing. He tied the dog, according to furious animal lovers, in a corner of the salon where it died.
Here is another link about the incident as well, although it’s in another language and I’ve been unable to translate it thus far.
There will always be cultural boundaries and different definitions of what is defined as “art”, but I’ve always maintained that any sort of suffering is pointless. Especially when something like this was preventable.
If this post strikes you, here are a few links to do something about other dogs stuck in terrible conditions:
Save A Dog – Foster A Dog, Save A Life
Can We Help You Keep Your Pet – Abused Dogs
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October 18th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
You’d think some art lover would say – oh hell no – and do something.
Instead of: “hmm. Interesting. This artist is really saying something.”
October 18th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
The real statement this art is making is that NO ONE was brave enough to make their OWN art statement and feed the dog, a la taking a hammer to the urinal in France.
October 18th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
I’m not sure what the cultural bias may have to do with it (as in some countries dogs have less respect as animals), but I agree, and I think that’s what the artist was in fact trying to portray.. That we only care about things after they die. But the fact that he instructed people not to feed it, obviously meant someone showed interest, thereby sort of negating his whole premise..
Inexcusable in any fashion in my opinion.. there are better ways to document this. The picture of the starving, dying african child and the vulture from the National Geographic picture is one thing because there really was nothing to do, but this dog could have been fed, given water, and then released and probably would have done decently for itself on it’s own. Better than being chained down at least.
October 18th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Well said.
October 18th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
This guy deserves to die.
Diversity. Had enough?
October 18th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Neither did the artist so he’s just a hypocrite by your argument
October 18th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
This is from the page that Ginnie couldn’t translate. I just pasted the URL into babelfish so it isn’t the best translation. But it gives better of what the artist was trying to say. From what I understood the artist was saying that people just let these dogs die on the street so whats the difference if he let it die in a gallery.
Here the most of the “translated” text
“According to I knew the dog died on the following day by lack of food. During the inauguration I knew that the dog was persecuted in the evening between the houses of aluminum and cardboard of a district of Managua with santo name who Habacuc that could not need at the moment. 5 children of whom they helped in the capture received 10 bonds of córdobas by their collaboration. During the exhibition some people requested the freedom of the small dog, to which he artist rehuso. The name of the dog was (it was) Natividad, and I let myself to him die of at sight hunger of all, as if the death of a poor dog was a shameless mediatic show in which nobody does nothing else that to applaud or to watch disturbed.
Definitively we are what leimos: pure croquetas.
In the place that the dog was exposed single it has left a metal cable and a cord. The dog was extremely ill, renqueaba and it did not want to eat anyway, so in natural surroundings it had died anyway; but thus they are all the poor dogs: sooner or later they die or they die them.”
Hope it helps
October 18th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
I would have left and returned with a baseball bat and the best steak I could find. Guess who would get what.
Oh… and some chain cutters.
October 18th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Excellent! Thank you Sarah!
Despite how sick the dog may have been, I’m sure it could have been saved or helped. He spent money paying kids to transfer it and arguably earned fame of some sort, so he’s still benefiting from something he could have helped.
October 18th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
People did not feed the dog, simply because they were asked not to… As sick as I think the artist is… the people who viewed the suffering dog are also to blame. Maybe the artist was trying to see if just a simple request would be enough to make people watch a living creature die. Its amazing how we had evolved… we have grown blind eyes.
October 18th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
I think that this is excellent art – I guess there are many street dogs dying all the time for hunger and sickness, but few people pay attention. By doing this outrageous art experiment, this artist has gotten people to talk and wake up.
October 18th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
If this is art then can I borrow one of his children, chain them to a railroad track and watch as the train cut their body in two? I will consider that ART if he considers this ART.
WHY DIDN’T ANYONE SET THE DOG FREE??? IF I WAS THERE, I WOULD HAVE CUT THE DOG LOSE AND LAY A BRICK ON THE ARTIST’S HEAD. …HMMMM BRICK AGAINST A HUMAN HEAD…THAT’S ART !
October 18th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
This conceptual project is a disgrace to a civilised society. Note I did not call it art which is to grant it a kind of moral imperative that this does not deserve. One need not hold under an audience’s nose death for us to understand it. We inherently do understand death. What some need to understand is that we ought, as a social animal, wish to help the pained and suffering be it our own species or that of another. We ought to eat only what we need to eat in terms of animal life and ought, in compensation, try to nurture the lives that we do not need for our survival as a kind of gift back to Nature for our carnivourous footprint. Watching..allowing a poor victim in a poor country starve or die whilst on display is callous and Nazi-like. Such an act in my country would result in a criminal trial for the so-called artist and the gallery. I speak as a civilised human who happens to be an an artist. Humanity calls for protecting the weak and the improverished and that includes dogs and cats. For shame to that display.
October 18th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
I can see your point on why you would think this is good art, but I do think its in poor taste to knowingly inflict pain on another creature to make such a point.
October 18th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
When will the story come out that this is fake? Were’s the dead dpg pics?
October 18th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I do not believe that this was art. It could have been prevented. Pictures and video of these dogs could just as easily been a mode. People can understand ones inability to help all the dogs and view it as beneficial but taking one dog and making it suffer is disgusting. What if I were to take a human and rope them up to fight starvation? Im sorry there are many pictures and stories out there that make me know it is an issue without that kind of cruelty.
October 18th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Well, you got helped get his name out there and his artwork generated a heated controversy in which people are debating the merits and boundaries of art, as well as how animals should be treated. I would say that this work of art has worked perfectly — how often does an artists message get through so quickly and generate so many comments from those who usually don’t spend much time thinking about art?
October 18th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
he found the dog on the street, tied to a pole. it would have died just the same. all he did was put it in a public place so you could see whats really going on. or maybe the dog is supposed to be a metaphor for what their doing to people all over the world. not just in his country. if you don’t like it don’t look at it, ignore it like 100,000,000 people do every day.
but i mean it’s life man. it’s cruel and inhumane. people are dying everywhere in the world as much as i’m sure dogs are dying, both for food and lack there of. so why should you be up in arms over one dogs life? would the animal lover do the same if he did this to himself? we watch it all the time on television. it’s not uncommon. nothings being done about it.
another dog dies.
October 18th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
You’ve nailed it. It reminds me of the milgram experiment.
October 18th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
It’s futile to guess whether the dog would have died or not without Vargas’s intervention–although it certainly did die from Varga’s actions. Perhaps he was so fed up with people treating dogs so poorly on the street that he decided to bring the death of this dog, and all dogs by extension, into the realm of “enlightened” society.
October 18th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Hell no! It’s not art!
October 18th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
I’d like to take a pickax to his face as my masterpiece. After all, artists starve all the time.
October 18th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Ironic that people so clearly see that this is not art, but have no problem viewing boiling live lobsters and throwing them on a plate with butter as an artisanal craft. The reality is our culture has a double standard about animals. We feign outrage over things like this and Michael Vick. Yet we sneer at vegans as self-righteous extremists for forcing us to confront our own hypocrisy. The death of this dog is a tragedy. But so are the deaths of the tens of billions of animals slaughtered every year because people choose to eat animals.
October 18th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
It’s hard to take your concern for the animal seriously when your only solution is to bring violence to another animal. Wouldn’t a more civilized solution be to simply feed the beast? Or if violence is the only language you speak… why not attack the man who had him chained in an alley to begin with? Better yet, why not axe the children who agreed to bring the beast; and for money no less? How about axing the face of every person who saw the creature and didn’t feed it?
October 18th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
i still wanna know why who chained a dog and let it die for art …
i dont think this has anything to do with art …
October 18th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
The artist, in this case, should probably be tortured and killed. I’m not a PETA member or anything (those people are a little too crazy), but this is wrong. I hope some crazy PETA person murders him. What an ass.
October 18th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
This guy better not ever show his face in NYC. I’ve written a little bit of “performance art” that involves him, and if he ever shows up, he’ll be seeing it up close and personal.
October 18th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
what is paAs
October 18th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Why dont they tie up that sob and let him starve…..i’d like to see that art…what a piece of worthless sh*t…..
October 18th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
this guy’s going to hell.
October 18th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Fucking piece of shit artist should be tied up in my basement and I’ll charge admission for people to come see my “art”.
October 18th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Are you for real? We allow poor victims in poor countries to die each and every goddamned day. Just because they aren’t on “display” doesn’t mean they aren’t dying. The real disgrace comes from all the people on this planet who could help those who suffer on a daily basis, but don’t. Including myself. I think that’s part of what this artists was trying to express.
October 18th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
And today a child in Africa died of starvation because you have done nothing to help.
October 18th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
inflict pain? I think not. He put on display the pain and suffering which were already present. If only the measuring stick for behavior was determined by how much suffering it caused others on this planet…
October 18th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
I will refer to Kierkegaard’s stand on self determination. The artist is searching for his self and the dog is simply a component of the journey. The act was cruel and inhuman but the process was to expose the inner conflict of the artist and his own self perception of being “tragic.” I’m sure he would argue endlessly over his right to “find himself” irregardless of the dog’s destiny. One final point: as members of the human race we have collectively destroyed countless species of animals, including humans, so the get all foamy about the dog is really over the top. Allow this artist to find the path to his self awareness.
October 18th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
How could anyone do that? This person has no humanity. How can anyone let an animal suffer in starvation and then to call the work “art”?
I have been told once that “Art” is suppose to touch or inspire a feeling in the observer. That being said, the only feeling this observer has is disgust.
Personally, I would like to tie this artist to a pole and let him starve, but of course, I wouldn’t do that to a dog.
Can not the world understand? What will be his next vision of art? Perhaps some child on the street (who might or might not die) will be his next plan. When will this stop?
How can any organization say this was a great thing and let the sicko represent his country in a art expo?
John Bishop, let me have a swing of your pickax!
October 18th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
I would not feed the dog, it would only prolong its suffering. I would rather have “accidently” cut its rope…but then I know it would be too weak to run off on its own and me running off with someones “property” in honduras would be bad news.
Sickening.
October 18th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
[...] is. Art is about expression. Art is about allowing people to interpret your work in their own way. Art is not tying a dog to a pole and leaving it to die. That’s just fucking disgusting. As a dog lover myself, and a human being in general, I [...]
October 18th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
How could anyone with a concience see this dog dying in the gallery or in the street and not do something to try and help the poor animal?
October 18th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Consider for a moment. He did have a humanitarian point to make though about the poor and ignored of Honduras, and many “third-world” places, suffering and dying everyday. After the dog died, he removed it and just left the rope behind… which was promptly ignored by the visitors to the exhibition.
If I were there, would I have helped the dog? I like to think I would. But I wasn’t. Time to subjectively step back and consider it from logical angles.
Just a few links about the things that could have been going through the artist’s mind when he came up with the concept of the ‘art’ he exhibited.
Dying for Clean Water In Honduras
Painkillers in short supply in poor countries
Gangs in Honduras
There is more, but I’m not an exhibitor. I don’t agree with the methods or the outcome. The man should be punished with whatever animal cruelty laws are available. Given a chance to go to trial. That said, I do understand a purpose.
October 18th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Someone please kill this guy.
Cruelty to animals is an act of cowardice – you are harming something which can’t defend itself.
October 18th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
This is seriously disgusting. no human.. regardless of where they are from should cause an animal to suffer for no reason. This isn’t anything to do with culture. It is globally understood that suffering is wrong.. otherwise cultures would kill themselves off.
October 18th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Art is supposed to be thought provoking and stir conversation. Yes it was cruel but how many time do we shush an animal like a stray dog or cat without so much of a consideration of what may happen to it. People barely keep their door closed for household pets. It’s art as disturbing as it maybe and maybe next time I see a dog starving I may just throw a double cheese burger his way. He got what he wanted, attention and people to talk. AS for the people who were cowards and not helping the dog i blame them for the ultimate death of the animal, not the artist.
It’s worse to stand by and do nothing rather than actually doing it..
October 18th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
Why would any sane human being do this to another creature?
What’s really depressing and making me angry is the picture showing all those people mingling with each other while the poor dog is lying starving.
Simple wtf is this world coming too.
That man should be punished for killing a defenceless animal. Maybe we should chain him and not feed him for the sake of “art”.
What society would allow this to happen?
October 18th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
The artist ought to be chained up too for this act of animal abuse.
October 18th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
what the fuck is wrong with these fucking people ?????
October 18th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
This lack of empathy and compassion for man’s best friend, such a common story…
Millions of captive animals are constantly suffering horribly slow and painful deaths at the hands of psychopaths, while society prefers to look the other way.
Are there are no boundaries to human cruelty?
http://pacthailand.org
October 18th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Here is some art for you. Why don’t we tie this “artist” up in a corner and not feed him. You know, “art”!
October 18th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
This is murder.
Life is life – confining and denying an animal (human or other) what it needs to sustain its life is murder.
Those responsible for this should be tried and be held accountable for their actions.
October 18th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
But having fat dogs in the U.S. (so fat that they need to go on diets) is OK? The U.S. is warped.