A 17-year-old Chinese Crested Chihuahua, with legs bowed out like a frog and an oozing sore, is the winner of this year’s World’s Ugliest Dog contest.
SweePee Rambo took home the title at the annual Petaluma World’s Ugliest Dog contest in California on Friday night at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds after besting 15 other malformed pooches, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported on Saturday.
Judges in the contest, now in its 28th year, take into account bad appearance, including stench and poor complexion as well as a host of other inherited and acquired maladies.
Photo: EPA
SweePee has a Mohawk hairstyle that glistens in the sun and a tongue that sticks out. She is blind in both eyes and has to wear doggie diapers.
Owner Jason Wurtz, 44, of Encino, California, said he got the dog as a gift for his first wife, but after a week she did not want anything to do with the gremlin-like pooch.
However, Wurtz said he could not bear to let her go, calling her a “ride-or-die chick” in the description he wrote for the contest.
When the 1.8kg Chinese Crested Chihuahua mix was announced the winner, Wurtz’s younger brother, Jeffrey Wurtz, burst into tears, shouting SweePee’s name and shaking a homemade sign that read: “SweePee Rambo for President 2016.”
The presidential election was a theme present in the contest.
One pup named Himisaboo, who did not place, had a flowing golden tuft that resembled that of presumptive Republican US presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“Whether you love him or loathe him, a vote for Himisaboo is a vote for a dog that looks like Donald Trump,” said Heather Wilson, Himisaboo’s owner, who drove out from Idaho for the occasion.
Wurtz and SweePee took the first-placed title and trophy, and a prize of US$15,000. Wurtz said he would use the money to pay for the removal of a tumor that recently popped up on SweePee’s gum line.
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