Dog Left to Die in Museum Considered Art

This may be old news... and may I request others to check on the facts? TIA

In 2007, 50-year old Guillermo Habacuc Vargas, took an abandoned dog in the street, attached a short rope and tied the fellow to the wall of an art gallery, and left it for dead.  Visitors to the gallery took notice of this so-called 'art' but some found Vargas' masterpiece anything but amusing. 

In a matter incomprehensible to some, the Centroaméricaine of Art decided that the savagery that Vargas had just committed was art and consequently, he was invited to repeat his cruelty in the 2008 version of the event.

According to Vargas, it was his way of publicizing the subtle cruelty of some owners who provide inadequate, if not inexistent, shelter and subsistence to their pets.

"I have been criticized for my work titled "Eres lo que lees", which features a dog named Nativity," Vargas wrote in his MySpace page.  "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."

Others were not impressed and even expressed their disgust by opening an online petition.

According to ArtInfo.com, more than 1.5 million individuals have signed the petition.  The website also says that, "Vargas said that the piece meant to test the public and that none of the exhibition's visitors intervened to help the animal. He would not reveal whether the dog lived through the exhibition, but did say he has received dozens of death threats."

Writer's note:  It just hit me.  One source says the artist is 50-years old.  But on Wikipedia, his profile says he was born in 1975.   But that I guess is below the main point of the story.