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″.

A starving, sick street dog was as part of an exposition in Managua, Nicaragua, in August.  Guillermo Vargas Habacuc found the dog tied up on a street corner in a poor Nicaragua barrio. Guillermo Vargas Habacuc then paid children to catch the dog.  Guillermo Vargas Habacuc then brought it to the 'showing'. The dog was not given food or water and died the dog in a corner of the salon where it died the following day. 

?Eres lo que lees?. You are what you read. The sentence, written with dog food, was displayed on the white wall of an art gallery. Close to that wall, an abandoned and diseased street dog was left tied to a rope and a wire string. An incense burner was placed nearby where, allegedly, crack and cannabis was burnt during the inauguration. Without food and water, the animal died in the gallery during the next day.It happened in Nicaragua. It was an ?installation? by artist Guillermo Vargas, known as Habacuc.The situation, documented with several images, received a lot of attention on the web and originated an online petition against it?s author that gathers, as I write these words, close to 50.000 signatures.

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.'

In August 2007, as part of his installment at the Bienarte 2007 in Managua, Nicaragua, Costa Rican artist Guillermo Habacuc Vargas tied up a stray dog, Natividad, and left it without food or water in the exhibition hall for the duration of the event. Allegedly, the dog later died. Vargas alternatively defended his actions by claiming that the dog would have died anyway, and later that the dog did not die at all. Since the event, several petitions have circulated the Internet, in both English and Spanish, condemning Vargas and urging that the artist be banned from Bienarte 2008.

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″

Here is a part of his original [most recent] statement:"Hello everyone. My name is Guillermo Habacuc Vargas. I am 50 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. "So there is just this to say: We see, that not only the gallery was lying from the beginning, but also, what we have to think about all statements of this "artist".

A so called artists by the name Guillermo Habacuc Vargas with the help of 2 children, who he paid, caught a dog on the street. He tied the dog in his exhibition gallery so people could see it starve to death. He told everyone not to feed this dog. He calls himself an artist. After suffering for a few days dog died in the gallery.

AFTER the abortion art, Anorak learns of Costa Rican artiste Guillermo Habacuc Vargas, who starved a dog to death and tied in an art gallery as an exhibit. The title of the works – Eres Lo Que Lees” - was spelt out on the gallery wall in dry dog food, beyond the dog’s reach. A pot of water was placed on the floor, beyond the dog’s reach. The dog died. The artist said it was ill and would have died anyway. Not every one is happy. A letter writing campaign is being organised

It has now emerged, however, that artist Guillermo Habacuc Vargas   intended the work to be a stunt to show how a starving dog suddenly   becomes the centre of attention when it is in a gallery, but not when   it is on the street. The work was intended to expose people for what   they really are - "hyprocritical sheep". He said that in order for   the work to be valid, he and the gallery had to give the impression   that the dog was genuinely starving to death and that it died.

Juanita Bermúdez, the director of the Códice Gallery, stated that the animal was fed regularly and was only tied up for three hours on one day before it escaped.[6][7] Vargas himself refused to comment on the fate of the dog,[7][5] but noted that no one tried to free the dog, give it food, call the police, or do anything for the dog.[5] Vargas stated that the exhibit and the surrounding controversy highlight people's hypocrisy because no one cares about a dog that starves to death in the street.[5] In an interview with El Tiempo, Vargas explained that he was inspired by the death of Natividad Canda, an indigent Nicaraguan addict, who was killed by two Rottweilers in Cartago Province, Costa Rica, while being filmed by the news media in the presence of police, firefighters, and security guards.[10] Upon conducting a probe, the Humane Society of the United States was informed that the dog was in a state of starvation when it was captured and escaped after one day of captivity; however, the organization also categorically condemned "the use of live animals in exhibits such as this." [11] The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) also investigated the exhibit.[8] WSPA found the information regarding the issue to be "inconsistent" and met with sponsors of the Honduras Bienal to ensure that no animals would be abused at the 2008 exhibition in that country. [8]

Back in October 2007 Costa Rican artist Guillermo 'Habacuc' Vargas "paid some children to chase and catch a stray dog, after which he chained up the poor animal in a gallery, telling the viewing public not to feed or water it". Allegedly bowls of water and food were placed near the dog but alas, both items were just out of the its reach. On the wall above the dog the phrase "Eres Lo Que Lees" (translates as "You Are What You Read") was written in dog biscuits. The outcome of the exhibition was that "the dog slowly starved to death and eventually died in the gallery in view of everyone".

Habacuc claims that he was inspired to create the exhibit by a case in which a Nicaraguan crack addict named Natividad Canda was killed by two dogs because police and firemen watching from the sidelines would not or could not intervene. Subsequent footage of the incident shown on TV generated disgust from the public. Habacuc viewed this disgust as hypocritical and therefore wanted to create a similar public reaction with his exhibition. Again, he does not clearly confirm or deny if the animal died during the display. In the interview, he rather ambiguously states that "the human eye is treacherous" and suggests that what one first believes he is seeing may turn out to be different after due reflection.

Hello everyone. My name is Guillermo Vargas Habacuc. I am 50 years old and an artist. Recently, I have been criticized 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.

When asked to provide an explanation for his actions Vargas claimed that this so called "art exhibit" was his way of paying respect to his friend who had died recently after he was attacked by two Rottweilers guarding a shop which his friend had been burglarizing.Upon reading through a few of the comments and blogs, I found that there were several threats against the artist, saying that he should be tortured and allowed to die just as the dog. However, no one mentions anything about the spectators. I am in no way defending Vargas's actions, I am however disgusted at the idea that no one attempted to rescue the dog. Pictures show people standing close enough to get a good look yet far enough away to escape any responsibility for the suffering the dog was clearly enduring. The stray dog is more alive today then he was the day he stood as a spectacle of suffering and selfishness. This story has gotten the attention of people everywhere, and rightfully so

What everyone is forgetting is that the controversy around this is exactly what he was getting at with his statement everyone cares about a dog that was going to starve on its own anyways, nobodys cares about the millions of people starving around the world every day or even the dogs starving in his home country its like everyone just saw the words starving dog and immediatly jumped to death threats

As a result, the people at the exhibit who were largely unaffected by the actual display of the dog, would be outraged when they read about it in the news the next morning and thus “became what they read” because the newspaper (the moral authority) told them they should be outraged

the people at the exhibit who were largely unaffected by the actual display of the dog, would be outraged when they read about it in the news the next morning and thus “became what they read” because the newspaper (the moral authority) told them they should be outraged.

A man who calls himself an artist ties a dog to a wall inside an art gallery. No, you heard me correctly - we're not talking about the night janitor who caught the starving animal littering the front steps of the gallery and decided to vent a lifetime of frustration by pulling off a ridiculously cruel stunt. We're talking about a man who calls himself an artist. His name is Guillermo Vargas Habacuc and the year is 2007. Guillermo is one of the artists taking part in an art exhibition that takes place at a Costa Rican gallery - pompously called "Centro Nacional de la Cultura" (National Center for Culture). He pays a bunch of kids to catch the street dog, which he cruelly baptizes "Natividad" (Spanish for "birth"). His aim is to make an artistic statement about the fragility and the misery in which all dogs - indeed, all human beings live, and he achieved just that by letting the dog starve to death tied to a wall, in plain view of the exhibition visitors, some of whom demanded futilely that the dog be released.