mo info from my friend richard posted on this*

Here's more info.

LATELY, a number of emails have been doing the rounds, condemning the actions of the artist, Guillermo Vargas ‘Habacuc’.

Last year, the Costa Rican ‘artist’ is alleged to have paid some children to chase and catch an abandoned dog. He is said to have tied the animal by a very short rope to the wall of an art gallery in Managua and left it there for several days, without food or water, until it died.

During this time, many people visited the art gallery, paying absolutely no attention to the torment of the dying dog.

Photographs of the so-called exhibition can be found on the Internet.

The prestigious Central American Biennial exhibition incomprehensibly decided to consider this barbarous act as art, and Habacuc has been invited to repeat his cruel action at the Biennial of 2008 in Honduras.

In his defence, the artist has claimed that what he was attempting to prove was that those who saw the suffering of the dog just walked on by and that if it had been left on the street to die, no-one would have even known of its existence.

It has also been reported that the dog did not die but escaped, and that it had been fed by Vargas and was only tied up during the gallery opening times. It has not been possible to confirm this.

The Managua exhibition attracted worldwide attention and many people believe it to have been an act of cruelty rather than art. A petition has been started in an attempt to prevent Habacuc’s involvement in the 2008 Biennial and from repeating the spectacle.

If you would like to sign the petition, visit: www.petitiononline.com/ea6gk/...on.html

I'll see if I can find more details.
*Ric...
*Richard G
online 374

Tue, April 8, 2008 - 7:05 PM
Here's the artist's blog with some very disturbing pictures:

elperritovive.blogspot.com/
*Ric...
*Richard G
online 374

Tue, April 8, 2008 - 7:08 PM
From The Guardian
Outrage at 'starvation' of a stray dog for art


Gerard Couzens in Madrid
Sunday March 30, 2008
The Observer

Chaining up a dog and forcing it to go without food and water in the name of art is a surefire way of making yourself unpopular with animal lovers. The furore created by Damien Hirst's pickled sheep and Tracey Emin's dirty bed pales into insignificance against the international outrage Guillermo 'Habacuc' Vargas has unleashed.

The Costa Rican has been called an animal abuser, killer and worse over claims that a stray dog called Natividad died of starvation after he displayed it at an exhibition last year at the Códice Gallery in Managua, Nicaragua. Vargas tethered the animal without food and water under the words 'Eres Lo Que Lees' - 'You Are What You Read' - made out of dog biscuits while he played the Sandinista anthem backwards and set 175 pieces of crack cocaine alight in a massive incense burner. More than a million people have signed an online petition urging organisers of this year's event to stop Vargas taking part.

Vargas, 32, said he wanted to test the public's reaction, and insisted none of the exhibition visitors intervened to stop the animal's suffering. He refused to say whether the animal had survived the show, but said he had received dozens of death threats.

Juanita Bermúdez, director of the Códice Gallery, insisted Natividad escaped after just one day. She said: 'It was untied all the time except for the three hours the exhibition lasted and it was fed regularly with dog food Habacuc himself brought in.'
*Ric...
*Richard G
online 374

Tue, April 8, 2008 - 7:16 PM
supposedly a statement from the "artist"
INFORMATION ABOUT EXHIBIT
What he says on his blog (translated) Located Here
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 c�rdobas 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.

Amelia-or do both, think globaly act localy act globaly*

Terran-start that petition! i think thats a super cause, the same thing crossed my mind, i can show you how to do it.

Lady V-ya, its totally survival mode here and there is an urgent lack of basic rights to clean water, food, shelter and healthcare.
curiously tho-when i gave some dogs here(peru) food in front of people, many looked on rather surprised and thoughtful,now i see one of the same dogs being fed by the woman i bought the meat from to feed it . there is an animal shelter here and some passionate folks loving the animals...i see beauty there in a good direction coming out of a very dire situation.

Tamara-i think its incredible what internet petitions can accomplish, see the movement for the recent one supporting tibet* or check out the amazing work coming out of www.moveon.org. Yes direct action as we live this life in all ways is ideal-tho i dont think we have evolved there yet as a species for sure...have you? i sure havnt! tho many are trying im sure of that.
and yes lets all do better* when i get home lets project on a huge wall the movie Earthlings (found free to watch on google video) somewhere downtown.
i agree, some humans can be pretty lame with how they think they are helping, but its surface and only to ease their conscience.
and luckily we are all different and have a different twist on each of our states of evolution...what might start someone off caring may be that they sign a petition online somewhere, which starts the momentum.
and some folks create all sorts of illusions coming off as a savior just to reap the rewards.
and some humans are just bullies.
and some are players.
and a few billion other takes...
i think there is too much crazy anger and self loathing, we have a responsibility to heal that within ourselves and direct it sustainable
humans do what they know, judging them can get really tricky.

no drop of precious love is Ever wasted!