While we certainly enjoy the big time dog shows like the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show and Purina’s National Dog Show, they’re mostly a little too 1% for our tastes. After all, this is a blog of the people, with our blue collars and armpit sweat. That’s why we can appreciate a pooch contest that gives rescue dogs their moment in the sun, like the 2012 World’s Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma, California.
The owners of 29 “ugly” dogs vied for the ultimate title and $1,000 prize over the weekend, but when all the hairlessness and derpy tongues had crossed the stage, only one critter was left standing.
The United Kingdom challenger Mugly took the title after traveling around the world to wrest the title from contestants of questionable beauty with names like Handsome Hector, Creature, Rue, Icky, Spam-O-Rama, and Mouse. Mugly is the UK’s ugliest dog.
Said owner Bev Nicholson, “I couldn’t speak when they announced Mugly’s name. I didn’t know which way to look. I was shaking as much as the dog.”
Not to take away from the ugly efforts of the other dogs, but if I were looking to get a horse (dog) in this race, I’d most certainly go with the Chinese crested, because it just seems like those dogs are the New York Yankees of ugly dog contests. It’s almost unfair.
After the jump, check out the best of the winners and competitors of this year’s World’s Ugliest Dog Contest and be thankful that some people believe that mutt beauty is only skin deep, too.
(All Photos Courtesy of Kira Stackhouse, World’s Ugliest Dog Contest, Sonoma-Marin Fair, Petaluma, California.)
