The starving dog as artIt's an email that is raising the ire of animal lovers around the world: A Costa Rican artist picked a starving dog off the streets of Managua, Nicaragua, then used him as part of an art exhibit that allowed him to continue starving.
According to the email, the dog -- chained in the shadow of the words "You are what you read," spelled out in dog food -- died a day into the exhibit.
The artist, Guillermo Vargas, also known as Habacuc, said the purpose of the exhibit, in part, was to bring attention to the fact that, in some countries, tens of thousands of stray dogs die in the streets, with no one paying 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," one blog quoted him as saying. "Nativity was a very sick creature and would have died in the streets anyway."
While the incident is all over the internet, actual news coverage of the event is sparse.
Nativity, or Natividad, depending on the blog or email you're reading, was the name Vargas gave the dog -- pictured above in a photo appearing on petitiononline.com -- that was used in the exhibit. It is also unclear whether the dog actually died.
According to the Humane Society of the United States, which has received numerous inquiries about the stories, the dog spent one day in the exhibit and later escaped the gallery.
"We do not condone the actions of this so-called 'artist,'" the organization says.
Vargas was chosen to represent his country in an upcoming art exhibit, the “Bienal Centroamericana Honduras 2008," and online petitions are circulating seeking to ban him from the event.
HSUS says it is seeking more information about the exhibit in Nicaragua, and said animal welfare agencies in Honduras have assured them the artist will not be permitted to duplicate the exhibit there.
The story made the Huffington Post over the weekend, with blogger Belisa Vranich, a psychologist, author and public speaker, going so far -- based only on blog innuendo and internet rumors -- as to issue a diagnosis, saying Vargas has "traits of antisocial personality disorder, grandiose and narcissistic personality disorder, and a peppering of delusions."
A brief article aslo appeared in The Times in South Africa.
Snopes.com, a website that investigates urban legends, classifies the veracity of starving dog artist story as "undetermined." There was an exhibit involving a starving dog, but it's not known if the dog perished during the exhibit, or at all, or whether it was fed or allowed to continue starving.
Despite the lack of facts, emotions about the case are high, and petitions like this one are being widely circulated.
Meanwhile, well-meaning animal lovers are creating videos in support of the petition, such as the one below.
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/features/mutts/blog/2008/04/post_61.html
