A Florida dog named Gus captured the hearts and votes of judges tonight at the 20th Annual World’s Ugliest Dog Contest held at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma. Rescued from a bad home and now suffering from skin cancer, Gus’ story was compelling, but he won based on his looks. A Chinese-Crested, he has no hair, only three legs (one amputated because of the skin tumor) and is missing an eye lost to a tomcat in a cat fight. Despite his trials, he is well loved by mother and daughter owners Jeanenne and Janey Teed.
Twelve dogs vied for the title of the World’s Ugliest Dog. Entrants came from Florida to New Jersey to Arizona to Petaluma. The contest has four levels of competition. Winners are chosen from both the Pedigree class and the Mutt class. Those winners then compete against each other to become the 2008 Ugly Dog winner Gus won the pedigree class and went up against Reggie who had just won the Mutt Class.
Winning that competition gave Gus the 2008 title, but then he had to meet the Ring of Champions, which included winners from past years’ contests. That’s where Gus met former champions Elwood (the 2007 winner), Archie (the 2006 winner) and Rascal (the 2002 winner). Gus takes home two trophies and $1,600 in prize money. In the past few years, winners have been dogs that have been abandoned or neglected before being adopted by people who love dogs and usually have several dogs whom they have rescued.
Gus was adopted by Jeanenne and her 16-year-old daughter Janey through word of mouth after they discovered he was being kept in a crate in the garage of someone’s home. Said Jeanenne, “I’m just in shock. We came so far and are so happy that we can put the winnings towards Gus’ radiation treatment. We’re just thrilled.”
Animal Planet shot the contest for a show to be released next October. Animal Planet’s host Beth Ostrosky joined emcee Brent Farris of KZST radio to interview the dogs, their owners, and award the trophies to a standing room only participatory audience.. This is one of the most popular events at the Sonoma-Marin Fair.
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