An Artist Seeks to Better the World, An Artist Does no Harm

I received this today from numerous sources...upon searching the internet, it is too disturbingly true:

An "artist" from Costa Rica, named Guillermo Habacuc Vargas, put a starved dog as a work of art, the poor dog died there, he did not want anyone to give him food or water."

PLEASE sign the petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/13031953/petition.html

His photo, his face hurts my heart so violently that I can't inflict that pain onto our supporters...cannot allow them to feel the suffering I feel, feel his ending as I know it. To be so helpless for another living being...to know it's too late for him...to cry and feel like my guts are exposed, but all for naught...to look at his face, want to run to him, protect him, most of all get him water, food.

To feel a hatred for his captor and for those who stand by drinking, socializing, watching "the exhibit." Fuck you.

As an artist I document suffering, push society's boundaries, challenge ideas. As an artist I seek to better the world. Guillermo Habacuc Vargas, the 'human' who starved this dog as part of his exhibit, calls himself an artist. I call him a coward, a murderer.

Worse than a murderer, I call him unfeeling. To deliberately take life, any life, in the name of art defiles the very meaning of art. Art is feeling, feeling art. One without feeling enough to stand and watch death and not intervene, seek to exhibit and promote that death is no more than death itself.

As a rescuer, every cell in my body screams to help this dog. These cells are denied.

As founder of an organization working for chained dogs, I long to step in to give him what he needs. But he no longer needs our help.

Forgive my kind, little old yellow dog. I'm ashamed of my species.

Now it is we who need help, help to come to terms with the cruel world in which we are forced to co-exist with those who abuse and torture our companions.

I wish I had words to soothe your souls, but my soul is too tormented, so betrayed by the cruelty of another artist that I cannot even process the depth of the depravity, cannot fathom the darkness within.

As one arrested for aiding a dog in a similar situation, in essence little more than an 'exhibit' for passers-by and neighbors, I despair of a world where sanity reigns.

Why are abusers not punished, why are those who save life criminals? Those who take life protected, honored? Are we of the same world? Is there a huge dichotomy that we cannot ever move beyond? Are we to suffer the painful deaths that result from bearing constant witness to torture by depraved beings?

I ask these questions and more, silently in my soul, over and over. All my questioning won't help you now, little old yellow dog.

You sweet, precious, innocent little old yellow dog. I'm so sad for you, for us, for humanity. God help us.