I'm Rob Blatt. For the most part I wrote about my dogs, music and technology. I swear quite a bit, so this blog isn't for people who can't handle that. I encourage you to subscribe to the RSS feed. All the random images to the right are courtesy of my amazing wife.
So I’ve posted some stuff about artists that think that animal cruelty can be disguised as art. Guillermo Vargas Habacuc and Tom Otterness have not made any public statements about the proceeds of their future art going towards saving street dogs or putting into action programs that would go about saving street dogs. Instead, we’re given apologies for the work.
I wonder if I slapped Tom Otterness in the face as hard as I could, if an e-mailed apology would suffice.
Anyway, If you don’t want to vandalize their artwork (specifically Tom Otterness’ DUMBO sculpture) there are alternatives. Ginny’s Organization Hands For Paws is in a desperate need for funds due to high volumes of dogs that need homes from Puerto Rico. Ginny is a kind hearted person and we’ve donated money after seeing her amazing work with Tino. For those of you who don’t know, Ginny is the person Amber managed to contact to help us save Tino from the beach.
Even if you can’t give money, maybe you are going to Puerto Rico and would allow a dog to be sent back with you. When they travel with people, it doesn’t cost much extra, but when they travel alone it can cost hundreds of dollars.
There are other ways to help out. Donate blankets to your local shelter or volunteer to walk dogs locally. You could always just ask too.
I have no reservation saying that people who treat dogs like shit in the name of “Art” should be treated like shit in the name of “art”.
Our new target is Guillermo Vargas Habacuc, who tied up a dog in the corner of a gallery. Over him was the words “You Are What You Read” written in dog food. The dog wasn’t allowed food or water and reports indicate that he died the following day.
Just to let you know, on December 29th of 2007, I came across a small 15 pound dog on a beach in Puerto Rico. He wasn’t moving, was obviously undernourished and was yelping for attention. He was happy to see someone coming to him and was even more happy to get some water, since he was out in the sun and couldn’t move. He had been laying there for nearly a week until we did something about it. Today, that dog seems pretty happy in our home.
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.
Excuse me? Would have died in the streets anyway? I’m pretty sure that you brought a dog off of the streets to make a name for yourself. The dog fucking died BECAUSE of you. Here’s a video that has some photos of the dog, Nativity.
This pile of filth is going to be doing this again. GUILLERMO HABACUC VARGAS is a blog dedicated to stopping this atrocity. You can sign the petition to try to stop it from happening again in Honduras.
So in light of the horrid news about the marine who was abusing a cute puppy over in the middle east, I have some positive news. Ginny from Manos por Patas (Hands for Paws) is having a $10 raffle that benefits her organization and the work in progress shelter in Florida for the dogs she helps save in Puerto Rico.
So last year on February 24th, Amber and I met a little beagle that needed a home. Being soft hearted, we agreed to make this little guy part of our family. The next day we found out that we were not going to be getting the beagle puppy. The family that was housing him couldn’t let him go, so we weren’t going to force them to give him up. I was sulking around the house for a little while after getting that phone call.
Around 11 am, Amber asked if I wanted to go down to the local dog shelter. She knew that I was pretty upset about not getting a new dog. At first I said I didn’t want to look for another dog, but then I yelled out “we’ll leave in 25 minutes. No guarantees.”
We went to the Connecticut SPCA in Monroe, CT and didn’t really see any dogs that we fell in love with. We were told there were smaller dogs available, but they were shy. In a similar story to how I adopted Matty, we went upstairs and saw a few crates with quiet dogs. One was a blond lab and she was calmly asleep, the other was some kinda brown and black dog that couldn’t have been over 20 lbs. I thought that we should see the blond one, because she was sleeping and quiet (that’s my rule about adopting dogs: they have to be quiet and calm in the shelter).
We introduced her to Matty before we agreed. They took one look at each other and didn’t really move much. She walked over and gave him a little kiss on his nose and we knew right then and there this was our dog. On our way home, we renamed her Leeloo Dallas.
This is a photo of her from the first few hours we had her. She was timid, scared out of her mind and thirsty.
She’s our little lady and I cherish the year that we’ve had so far.
So last year on February 24th, Amber and I met a little beagle that needed a home. Being soft hearted, we agreed to make this little guy part of our family. The next day we found out that we were not going to be getting the beagle puppy. The family that was housing him couldn’t let him go, so we weren’t going to force them to give him up. I was sulking around the house for a little while after getting that phone call.
