Is This Art? Or Animal Abuse? Animal And Dog Lovers Be Warned…
October 18th, 2007 | by Ginnie | (Visited 644,805 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 8:23 pm
Do we really need another Artist?…hell no….Chain him up!
October 18th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
They ought to chain that asshole up in the gallery and let him starve.
October 18th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
If I saw it and he said I couldn’t feed it then sorry artist boy but after punching your lights out I would have put the poor dog down!
-Sully
October 18th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
I think he should be put to death by the same way he treated the dog. And then we can call it art!
October 18th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
If it was tied to a pole, it was obviously going to be collected by it’s owner sometime. If he believed it was going to die, then simply let it go, or feed it and give it to someone that would look after it. What if nosaj had been treated the same. I bet you’d hear him/her squeal from the other side of the world. Yes dogs die every day. That’s no reason to be cruel you loser.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Wake up to what? To the fact that there are losers like him and you in the world?
October 18th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
This guy is awesome.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
What the hell did the dog ever do to “senior artiste” to deserve such a fate?
If ever I receive a choice between killing this monster or saving the dog, I’d kill this ****** 1000 times over – slowly -
Then again, I guess there’s some market for twisted things like this. After all, just take a look on the net at how many sites there are dealing in morbid pics / vids involving death, mutilation etc. These sites are prospering. Why I wonder, because no one’s visiting? Didn’t think so.
In fact, I’m pretty sure some twisted monkey is reading this right now. If you’re into this type of shit, do us all a favor and take your perversions out on yourself. In fact, just kill yourself right now.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
What is the definition, in your culture, of a humane death? Starving in the street? Dying of old age and dementia alone in a nursing home? Maybe you think abortion is humane or capital punishment? Does it matter that it is a dog? What if it were a mouse? Maybe a snake? What if it were a serial killer? A stranger on the street? Could you, through inaction, allow one of them to die? In some cultures they worship death, others eat dogs as part of a regular meal? Do the hindu protest the wests method of cattle slaughter? Before you try and place yourself upon the moral high ground, be sure you are on the mountain rather than a foothill with the mountain at your back.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
This is a lousy thing to do to an animal, but I have the chilling feeling that all the people who claim that they would kill the artist with a brick and set the dog free would not have done so when instructed not to by museum security. It’s scary what we’ll do when told to by authorities. There’s the famous Milgram experiment where people were willing to shock someone with stronger and stronger current if instructed to do so by an authority, and of course the holocaust, where an entire nation quietly sat by while the authorities killed millions. If ANYTHING positive comes out of this horrible act, maybe it will make us think twice about authority and how little we are often willing to question it.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
Wish I was there to hear that, I’d knock his teeth in the back of his throat and tell everyone not to call for help cuz its Art!
October 18th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
It’s not not art…
October 18th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
While this artist has inflicted pain upon this wonderful creature, the audience inflicted pain even more. See the last picture, everybody’s back is turned and wrapped up in their own lives rather than noticing the starving dog in the corner. I would have bought that dog food being an artist myself.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
Cruelty to animals has been shown by psychologists to be a leading indicator of sociopathic behavior — the same behavior that later leads to cruelty (and killing) of other humans. If applying the false label of “art” to this act legitimizes it, would “art” killing of humans be next?
This is the worst example of Orwellian double-speak. Words are powerful and by abusing their meaning evil people can easily manipulate those with weak characters.
Torture and killing for pleasure are always wrong. Simple really. Doesn’t matter what sort of sophistry is used to justify it.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Obviously, they should do the same thing to the ‘artist’ eh?
October 18th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
You are a huge .. terribly huge … dumbass. Wow.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
If the artist chained himself up and died, I might consider that art… stupid, but art. He would have had the choice to leave.
Taking a helpless animal and starving it is NOT art.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
So.. I will beat you to almost near death and tie you up somewhere. Hopefully some amazing artist will find you and do the same for his art piece. Then all of the people at the opening can drink wine while you are dying there and they can sniff each others intellectual farts while pretending to be enlightened. I hate you.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
If he wanted to make a statement about how the deaths of these dogs are overlooked like this, then why not take pictures instead? It seems he could have used that money he paid the children to give the dog something to eat. I understand that animals on the brink of death often don’t eat and try to seclude themselves…but to display it in a way far more tangible…and to even instruct people to not even TRY and help it is just barabric, and not art in any way. The factual portrayal of suffering is one thing….the forcing of it is a very different thing indeed.
On that same note though, while I would have tried to help the dog, regardless of the artist’s request, I wouldn’t have used violence against the artist or bystanders to vindicate or further my efforts. No matter how cruel we may be, Humans are animals as well…and deserve just as much compassion and love as any other creature on this planet.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
Tie him up like the dog till he starves to death!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He is a physco !!!!!!!!!
HANG HIM TO DEATH
October 18th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
i hope seeing that creature suffer was worth the horrid pictures the artist took. is he insane? i would love for him to be tied up in front of hundreds of onlookers without food, even it was only for one full day, this would make a point, and prove one to himself i think.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
This makes me sick to my stomach. I know I am not the first to say so, and I am sure I will not be the last, but being cruel to any of God’s creation in the name of anything is horrifying. It is indeed sad and disturbing that dogs die all day from lack of attention, and it is true that by and large no one pays attention to the attrocities around them until someone makes some noise about it. There was a little too much foreign language involved for me to take a stab at what the artist was “going for”, but torturing a living being is not a statement worth making, it is squalid.
Thank you for calling attention to this atrocity.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
What would accomplish more? Showing the suffering of the dog or just helping it to live? Art should require suffering from the artist, no one else. This “artist” should be beaten to death on the street.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
lol I agree with you.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
lol, I agree with you.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
As an artist, I consider this completely sickening. And as a dog lover and defender, I feel even euthanasia is a rather cruel feat of human nature. Rather than put the extra effort forth to save a lowly creature (as general humans would put it), birthed by our societies, our species, we would rather exterminate them. I mean, would you consider putting your child to sleep just because he or she has come down with an incurable ailment, or perhaps being curable, just being extremely costly? I understand that those of incurable disease/illness, or those that are dying of old age make their way into hospices, but why not our beloved pets? I was stricken with the harsh decision of either putting my dog to sleep, or coughing up $1600 when she was hit by a truck and the owner did not offer to pay medical expenses. Instead, I made due with what money I had and took the extra effort to save her. I could only afford one cast, but crated her for several months and watched her closely until her injuries healed. She is living and in perfect shape. Now I understand that in nature, wild animals live and die by the laws of darwinism and evolution, but when humans interact with a species, they forever change their niche. The animal can possibly revert back and be considered feral, but they will never be what is considered truly wild. Humans need to show more respect towards our fellow canines and protect what beautiful domesticated animals we have created.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
I just wonder when the same art lovers will be cheering on the [insert persecuted people] being thrown to the lions in the modern day coliseum.
If people find that acceptable, will we soon see a return of Roman type spectacles?
October 18th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
If he can do this to a dog i wonder how he treats people
October 18th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
You are right. The dog would probably have died anyway.
And we see this on TV all the time.
And One Hundred Million people ignore it everyday.
But WTF makes you think that the preexisting condition of something gives a blanket permission for people to further perpetuate that situation.
Who in their right mind thinks a sordid societal condition cedes them the right to point it out by engaging in the very activity they are professing to condemn.
This is to me the equivalent of a theif stealing from another theif to demonstrate how terrible stealing is.
Or a child rapist claiming that he is an artist by publishing his foul acts to point out the horrors of how many children are raped.
It is disgusting.
If you want to get people attention and mobilize them to take action agains an ill of society, I salute you. But if you tell me the only way that you can do so is in this manner, then I have lost all respect for you and MUST condemn your actions.
The fact that you support this confused sociopath concerns me. You obviously… I am going to stop now. You should really think before you post a comment like this.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
life and death is never art there is nothing beautiful in death. If you’ve ever witnessed it you would know that. The only acceptable statement to be made in death is ones own martyrdom. Taking the life of another being puts you not on the level of Picasso or Warhol, rather that of Joseph Mengela. I say this as someone who has witnessed death to many times to count. You want to comment on the futility of life or mans apathy go to Gary Indiana or Detroit Michigan (my home town and the city I work in) and take pictures of the nursing homes there the way the greatest generation are treated like second class animals.
Would it be art if you took a mother after recently given birth, displaying the mother being Gang Raped with in an inch of her life and then having her breasts chopped off with a machete and keeping her on display until the child dies. If that can be art than it’s perfectly acceptable to say that the dog dieing was art. However if you feel that you could watch my scenario call it art and sleep like a baby that night then you need to realize that performance art has a place and sometimes photos will have to suffice…
October 18th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
I think this was a great concept. Sure, the dogs death was a bit cruel, but there’s a lot of poetic justice behind this.
open your minds people
October 18th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
I like how in picture from the opening all the arties are just standing around with their drinks.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
The point of the artwork was to BREAK THE RULES and feed the dog, to “LET THE HUMAN SPIRIT WIN” and all that crap.
What F*CKING DOUCHEBAGS were going to that exhibition????? I’m ashamed of being a human being right now.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
obviously none of you have ever been to a large south american city, where packs of stray dogs are no more «respected» than pigeons up here in the north. they’re at best a nuisance, spreading disease and parasites. they avoid people, all the while living off garbage. these are not your cute, fluffy, spayed, neutered and vaccinated members of the family. they do not have names. they are not domesticated. you do not touch these animals. they are just a notch above the garbage they live in. a very small notch.
from what I understand the dog died one day after being put into the gallery. just look at the pictures. mangy, scraggly, skinny and apparently a day away from the end of its painful existence. walking with a limp, refusing to eat. yes, the poor dog did not want to eat. it probably knew at this stage that it didn’t have a lot of time left. and it sure didn’t die as a result of being in that gallery. the dog was very sick and would have died in the street anyways.
the link to the spanish article is very enlightening – for all you spanish readers out there – and the huge quantity of comments – roughly half positive, half negative – clearly demonstrate that there are many points of view from which to see this statement.
I don’t think you can impose your personal emotional point of view on a situation of a vastly different cultural context. I mean, a pick axe to his face? murder? REALLY? do you have that reaction when you see a dead pigeon lying in the street? do you feel like murdering the children of whoever drove over the poor poor pigeon? me neither. because it’s just a dirty pigeon, not anything really important.
and in most south american cities, stray dogs are nothing more than a dirty nuisance.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
I agree- where is the conscious of this artist. Where is the conscious of the viewer!
Where is compassion for all sentient beings! This abuser made another living being suffer and be tortured in the name of art. All animals feel pain. A spectacle? Really disgusting in this 21st century can we humans ever get and grow beyond the Inquisition.
What is next Gitmo as a performance piece.
This should never happen again. Art is not torture.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
Here is the translation I did on digg:
From what I know, the dog died the following day from lack of food. During the opening ceremony I found out that a dog was chased in the evening, just between the houses of aluminum and cardboard of a ghetto of Managua named Saint of Habacuc, I’m not entirely sure at what time. Five kids that helped capture it received 10 cordobas for their help. During the exhibition some people asked the dog be freed, the artist declined.
The name of the dog was Natividad (Nativity), and it was left to die in-front of everyone, as if the death of a poor dog was a shameless media show in which no one could do much but clap or watch nervously.
We definitely are what we read: only biscuits. (referring to the picture that reads, ‘we are what we read: biscuits’).
In the place were the dog was exposed, only a metal cable and leash are left. The dog was incredibly sick, cried and didn’t want to eat anyway, so it’s natural environment would have been death anyway; although that’s how all dogs are: sooner or later they die or they are died (sic).
October 18th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
I agree:
Art is not torture! If it is will Gitmo be a performance. This artist is an abuser and a possible serial killer. That is in their MA the torture and killing of animals. Then humans.
Where is the conscious of this artist and where is the conscious of the viewers?????
How did we let another living being suffer and die in the name of spectacle.
Lets take a quantum leap out of the Inquisition paradigm. Please!
October 18th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
He made a statement. think beyond the fact the dog is now dead and how it died and realize how the true message of his art. He brought out the disgusting reality that people will do what they’re told. they do as they’re told and don’t ask questions.
the fact that nobody broke the chain, no body fed the dog or made effort to remove the artist shows the ugly side of people, especially the art-loving visitors!
Brilliant yet violent and disturbing at the same time.
October 18th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
There is no cultural equivocation here – this is outright cruelty. I’d like to tie up this “artist” and make him part of his exhibit.
I’ve translated the linked page (not through the fish, I speak Spanish). It seems the writer presents the other side of the story.
“According to my own inquiry, I discovered the dog died on the following day due to malnutrition. During the event, I was told the dog was chased down in the shanty towns made of aluminum and cardboard in a district of Managa (Nicaragua) by someone named Habukkuk, but I could not confirm. five children assisted in the capture, and were paid 10 cordobas for their assistance. During the exhibition, several viewers pleaded for the release of the dog, but the artist rebuked them. The dog, named Nativity, was allowed to die in plain view of everyone, as if the dog’s death were some shameless exhibition in which viewers should do nothing but applaud or watch however disturbed they may be.
Definitely, we are we read: nonsense.
The dog was placed on display tied by a metal cable and a cord. The dog was already extremely sick, refused any contact and it did not want to eat, hence it would have died anyway; thus the dog is like many poor dogs: sooner or later they die or are killed.
October 18th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Yes I find this horrifying. It shouldn’t happen.
What worries me is that people get upset over this but think abortion is OK. Little unborn babies get chopped up and discarded.
How many people replied to this who think starving a dog to death is wrong but chopping up the unborn is OK?
Neither should happen.
October 18th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
It’s art. It’s sick art, I’ll agree, but it makes a statement. The viewers listened to the artist rather than feeding the dog. It seems that we, as a race, are more willing to let a reprehensible thing happen right in front of us if we’re told to by a percieved authority figure.
I agree with the previous poster that someone should have fed it as a counter point.
As was the case when Davis Hammons urinated on a piece by Richard Serra.
October 18th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
[...] read more | digg story [...]
October 18th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
I think this is just sick!! ART are you kidding me!!?!? Starving a helpless animal to death is not art?!?! Would it be art it we were to chain a human up and starve them to death and then put them on display!!?!? Animals are helpless creatures! This guy should be locked up for a veeerrrryyyy loooong time!
October 18th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
I won’t try to defend this guy, but all the aforementioned comments about how he should “die” and “be shot” are embarrassing and equally offensive. People who truly value life (be it a dog’s life or a human life) don’t respond like this. Please grow up or get off the internet.
Also, the artist wrote “The importance to me is the hypocrisy of the people where an animal is the focus of attention where people come to see art but not when it’s in the street starving to death.”
So… where exactly is the outrage for all the dogs dying in the streets? Hell, where’s the outrage over the human beings dying in the streets? And what is anyone doing about it? Signing an online petition doesn’t count.
You see, most of the aforementioned comments nicely support the artist’s statement. As predicted, and as is often the case, the issue-at-hand is the focus only after it’s reached a point of no return, but not when there’s still time to do something about it.
Hypocrisy, indeed.
(And yes, it’s a shame a dog had to die for the artist to make this point. I’m sure there must have been other, less permanent ways to convey the same message).
October 18th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
Art or not….(beanie)like….who does that?(beanie)
October 18th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
This is brilliant art – street dogs die all the time, this one is causing controversy
October 18th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
What the hell does diversity have to do with it?
Jackass.
October 18th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
I just think it’s sick !! if he is an artist ? is this the best he can come up whit ? pretty lame sick ****** ! hope i’ll never catch you in person !
October 18th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
If this is so obscene, why did no one:
1. Force the food and water issue, instead of accepting the artist’s instruction?
2. Do nothing for the animal while it was on the street and only when it was brought into the gallery?
The artist’s argument to me seems to be a matter of, we only see things when we want to see things, and only act when it has been thrust in our face and violates our moral senses. If you prosecute him, do you prosecute everyone who walked by and did nothing? Do you prosecute everyone who walked by, attempted, but stopped on his word? Do you prosecute the people who passed it on the street?
Why are we getting upset about this dog when there are others in our own neighborhoods who we don’t even try to assist?
It’s an act that is a great conversation piece and moral ambiguity goes a long way in accepting what happened, but ultimately the question is why are we blaming instead of acting.
October 18th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
BS!!!….Hope you get abducted by another being and make you suffer some kind of an Art form that produces never ending & unimaginable amount of PAIN…. the kind that will never kill you…just suffer again and again and again and again Mofo!!! Death is too luxurious for your kind.