In 2007, as part of an art exhibition, Guillermo Vargas took a dog from the street, tied him to a rope in an exhibit, and let him starve to death as people watched. Video of the dog can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6vP8CgTonQ

The video may be in Spanish, but the visual is enough of an outrage.

Now, he wants to do it again.

http://www.petitiononline.com/ea6gk/petition.html

You can help try to stop him by signing this petition: Please, pass this on to everyone you know. No animal should have to suffer unnecessarily and so terribly!!!!

Here's an idea ~ if this so-called artist can survive what he proposes for the dog (he won't), then let him do it. Our HS informed us, that the first dog escaped the exhibit!!

Boy I sure hope so Tina!!! If I would of been there I went of went to the jail for the dog.  No way would I have left without him and took him somewhere for immediate medical help.

 That Mother F er I cant stand people who do stuff like this..

I cant watch the video just cant that is so wrong maybe someone should starve him the sicko he should be locked up

how the HELL did this HAPPEN!!! Who the HELL let this sick f***ker do this!! I had to leave to leave the computer that made me cry and feel physically ill!! He wants to do it AGAIN!! I love art but mate that is NO NO NO art whatsoever.. that is PURE cruelty.. i dont understand how he could get away this!!

Whoa, whoa, whoa.....Y'all just hold on a minute.....I saw this on SodaHead.com (http://sodahead.com/question/77525/) about 3 weeks ago and there seems to be a lot of accusations flying around about this "artist" but nobody has checked the accuracy of the story.

I did and it's not what you think.

Here's what I found.......

A comment found on sodahead said this:

However, just doing a little digging on this subject on the internet, it is clear there is much doubt about whether the dog was starved, died, etc. I cannot find a news source I'm familiar with that has actually investigated, but the Humane Society apparently did.

The Humane Society website says this:

"Q. Is it true that a Central American artist used a starving dog in an art exhibit?

We are aware of this story and have asked our contacts in Central America for more information. According to local animal welfare organizations, the dog was in a state of starvation when he was captured from the street for display in the exhibit. We have also been informed that the dog spent one day in the exhibit and later escaped the gallery. We do not condone the actions of this so-called "artist," and condemn the use of live animals in exhibits such as this. An animal welfare organization in Honduras, where the next art show will be held, is keeping close watch on the case and assures us that the artist will not repeat his objectionable exhibit.

Sadly, thousands of street dogs in Central America are in as poor shape as this one. HSI works throughout the world to prevent the circumstances that allow such a tragic event to take place. We encourage you to learn more about our street animal welfare programs."

http://www.hsus.org/contact_us/humane_society_international.html#Q_dog_artist

The point is: don't immediately believe everything you hear on the net...perform some due diligence before you react. When you do react, do it through reputable resources that you know can make a difference. I think this guy is getting a load of free publicity by the perpetuation of a story that cannot be easily corroborated.

Another reference which quotes the World Society of Protection for Animals:   http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/vargas.asp

A related article: http://www.dabbler.ca/news/parliament-of-one-starving-dog-as-art-%E2%80%93-don%E2%80%99t-believe-everything-you-read-20080411/

And here's the artist's own explanation of his work:

"Hello everyone. My name is Guillermo Habacuc Vargas. I am 32 years old and an artist. Recently, I have been critisized for my work titled "Eres lo que lees", which features a dog named Nativity. The purpose of the work was not to cause any type of infliction on the poor, innocent creature, but rather to illustrate a point. In my home city of San Jose, Costa Rica, tens of thousands of stray dogs starve and die of illness each year in the streets and no one pays them a second thought. Now, if you publicly display one of these starving creatures, such as the case with Nativity, it creates a backlash that brings out a big of hypocrisy in all of us. Nativity was a very sick creature and would have died in the streets anyway."

I think for his next project, he should put a starving child in a gallery to "illustrate the point" that there are starving children in the world none of us are doing anything about

i heard that exact story from a very knowlegable friend of mine who has been an artist her whole life and keeps up with the art world. she emailed me about this story and also said the artist was doing this to bring the issue of starving dogs to the forfront. I do not know the whole story because there are so many but you are right in that we need to do our research. I am the last person on this planet who would defend this action as it was originally told. I am still disgusted at this show no matter the reason. There must be another way to make a point.

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not defending this either. I just know that on sodahead, there were a lot of angry people when they saw this story but none seemed to look into it any further for the truth.