This Year's "Ugliest Dog"

While all dogs are cute in their own right, there is a special award given annually to the least cute dog worldwide.  

This award is given through the World's Ugliest Dog Competition.  This year, it was held on Friday, June 26th in Pataluma, California.  

This year, a short-spined mixed-breed dog from Florida named Quasi Modo won the competition for "excellence in ugliness." 

The judges use five categories to judge the dogs on: first impressions, unusual attributes, natural ugliness, personality, and audience impression.  In the end, it came down to 27 dogs for the title.  Quasi Modo, a pit-bull, Dutch shepherd mix, took home the ultimate title.  Sweepo Rambo and Frodo, two Chinese-Crested mixes, took first and second runner-up.

Quasi Modo's owners are proud of his title, and say that they adopted him from an animal shelter.  His strange appearance is due to multiple birth defects, his spine and his back being too short for his body.  His owners say that he's even been mistaken for a hyena and a Tasmanian devil.  

While the World's Ugliest Dog Competition may sound offensive, it's actually meant to promote toleration and acceptance for people and animals that look a little different.  It's also part of a fair that promotes animal adoption and rescue shelters.  

You can find out more about the competition from an hour-long documentary called Worst in Show by Don Lewis and John Beck.