In 2007, the ‘artist’ Guillermo Habacuc Vargas took an innocent dog from the street, tied him with one short cord to one of the walls in an art gallery in Managua, Nicaragua, and let him die of hunger and thirst. Apparently, the name of the dog was Natividad and despite public protest during the exhibition, he was left to face his death.

For some inexplicable reason the prestigious Visual Arts Biennial of Central America decided that the ‘installation’ was art and invited Guillermo to repeat his cruel act for the Biennial of 2008. Jose Morales, vice president of the ‘Special Unit for Animal Protection and Rescue’ commented: “The dog was tied without food, I do not understand how this can be considered art.” I couldn’t agree more.   

Thanks to approximately 2 million people who signed an independent online petition against Guillermo, he is no longer welcome at the Central American Biennial and after pressure from the public, WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals) and the Honduras Association for the Protection of Animals, the Biennial organizers agreed to prohibit the abuse of animals.

Elly Hiby, WSPA’s Head of Companion Animals, said: “Information regarding the treatment and fate of the dog used in the 2007 exhibition is inconsistent, but for WSPA - irrespective of the exact outcome - chaining a dog without food or water for public entertainment is a reprehensible abuse”.

In an interview in ‘Nación’, the ‘artist’ himself said: 

“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 Nativitad. 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.”

Depending on the public reactions, Guillermo changed his statement from “the dog would have died anyway” to “I cannot say if the dog died or not” to “I wanted to do it to remember Mr. Natividad Canda” (the burglar killed by guard dogs) and finally “I did the exhibition to show the terrible situation of street dogs”.

The gallery claims that news articles had misconstrued the facts surrounding the installation. Juanita Bermúdez, the director of the Códice Gallery, was quoted in La Prensa saying that the animal was fed regularly and was only tied up for three hours in one day before it escaped.

Either way, how Guillermo can choose to tie the dog up and let him starve to show the situation of the street dogs, that is sick. He could have made the same point in so many other ways. Since he’s an artist, why didn’t he photograph the street dogs and made an art show out of that? Or got involved with an organization that protects the animals?

Last week, I read online that someone had compared it to the situation of the Nicaraguan street kids. He wrote: “What if someone would tie an innocent street kid up in a gallery, let him or her starve to death and call it art?” And what if ‘the artist’ would defend himself by saying: “But the kid would have died anyway.”

Let’s treat animals in the same way we humans want to be treated.

Eventually, Guillermo admitted his mistake and said that he should save the dog rather than let it die.

Artinfo.com wrote:

“The outrage comes after an exhibition last year at the Codice Gallery in Nicaragua, where Vargas leashed a stray dog named Natividad in the gallery without food or water as part of his work. He also wrote the words ‘Eres Lo Que Lees’ (You Are What You Read) in dog biscuits for the piece, while playing the Sandinista anthem backwards and setting 175 pieces of crack cocaine alight in a giant incense burner.”

Currently, WSPA and member society UCC supports a campaign that calls for legislation to protect animals in Nicaragua. Other WSPA campaigns in progress include bear farming, bear baiting, dancing bears, Japanese bear parks, bull fighting, sanctuaries and releases. To see the set of rules about the treatment of animals, download the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare.

At the moment, an estimated 80% of 600 million dogs in the world are neglected and suffer from hunger and disease. The black market of illegal trade in wildlife is worth $10 billion a year, only exceeded by drugs and arms trading. Millions of wild animals are killed, captured or traded cruelly. Though rarely considered, animals are also affected by disasters (earthquakes, floods, droughts) and human-caused fires, military conflicts and oil spills. Just look at the recent disaster in Myanmar where thousands of cows, goats, sheep, and donkeys almost starve to death or have to eat food polluted with harmful bacteria and parasites.

A Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare would have a long-term effect on the welfare of billions of animals worldwide, so don’t forget to sign the Animal Matters petition.

The situation with the poor dog Natividad is not the only case where an ‘artist’ mistreats animals. In September, 2006, an art gallery in L.A. let an artist paint an elephant red as part of the BANKSY “Barely Legal” art show. I don’t understand how 27 people on Flickr can call this picture a favourite. At the gallery, people gawked, laughed and took pictures of the elephant before buying the art, the posters and the books. This picture was taken when the elephant was no longer painted.  

These situations are far from blissful, but even on a blog like Blissful Travel - known to cover positive events - I want to draw attention to what people can do to make the world a more blissful place.