THE WORLD'S UGLIEST DOG® CONTEST

Princess Abby

Every year in Petaluma, California, the World's Ugliest Dog® Contest is held.  This has been going on for 22 years now, and it has become a very popular event.  Of course, I would never enter this contest since I wouldn't have the slightest chance of winning, and this is because I am too totally cute!  But there are some dogs that are actually sort of ugly, and their humans seem to be proud of this, so they enter their dogs in the contest.

Princess Abby, 2010 Winner

The winner of the most recent World's Ugliest Dog® Contest, which happened last June, was a dog named Princess Abby, who is a rescued chihuahua.  Abby walks in a very strange and hunched-over way because her back legs are longer than her front legs.  Also she is missing one eye, and her ears don't match.  But she has a cute way of dancing on her hind legs to beg for treats.

In order to win the Contest, Princess Abby had to be judged uglier than the other 13 dogs in the pedigree class.  Two other dogs in this class were Pabst, a boxer who won in 2009; and Rascal, a Chinese crested who won in 2002.  Then after beating those dogs, Abby also had to beat a dog named Chopper, who was the winner of the mutt division.

Pabst, 2009 Winner

Karen Halligan, a veterinarian who checked all the dogs before the contest, said that "Princess Abby is the poster child for spaying and neutering your animals.  Her looks probably stem from being inbred."

Abby's mom got to take home $1,600 in prize money.  In the past, dogs who won the Ugliest Dog contest have got to go on TV and do stuff like that to help make people more aware of all the poor homeless animals who need to be rescued.

Rascal, 2002 Winner

Rascal, who won the contest in 2002, has got to have a film career in some horror movies.  Also he has been on The Tonight Show and on The View.  Besides being mostly hairless, Rascal also has warts and freckles and no teeth.

Sam, 3-time Contest Winner

But probably the most famous winner of the World's Ugliest Dog® Contest in the past was Sam.  He died last year which is why he wasn't in the contest this year.  Sam was really, really ugly, and that is why he won three times.  Also he got to be in a 2006 wall calendar.  Sam was a Chinese Crested with crooked teeth and several skin diseases, but everyone said he was a very sweet dog.

Gus, 2008 Winner

Another past winner was Gus, who died of skin cancer when he was 9 years old.  Gus was a Chinese Crested with three legs and one eye.  He was rescued by Jeanenne and Janey Teed after they found out he was being kept in a crate all the time in somebody's garage.  He lost his eye in a cat fight, and he had to have his leg amputated because it had a tumor.  The money he won in the 2008 Ugliest Dog Contest was used to help treat his cancer.

Elwood, 2007 Winner

Elwood was the winner in 2007.  She has a boyish name, but she is really a girl.  I think she looks sort of like Yoda would if he couldn't keep his tongue in his mouth.

Okay, well, I'm supposed to tell you that the photos from the World's Ugliest Dog® Contest were taken by Grace Chon/Shine Pet Photos.
Also, if you like looking at pictures of ugly dogs, you can go to the Contest's Facebook page and see some more of them.

It's pretty amazing to me that you can actually win money for being ugly, but even though I know that now, there is still no way I would even think about entering such a contest!