World's Ugliest Dog Contest: Vote Online for Your Favorite!

Sonoma-Marina Fair's annual contest of ugly dogs will crown its winner tomorrow

By John Boone Jun 20, 2013 7:45 PMTags
World's Ugliest Dogssonoma-mayfair.org

Good news, dogs: You won't have to worry about answering (or "answering") any questions about gender inequality or employment or even world peace. Bad news: You ugly.

The 25th annual World's Ugliest Dog competition is officially underway and the winner will be crowned tomorrow, June 21, at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in California. "Let's celebrate ugly dogs—some of the best dogs in the world!" the contest explains on their official Facebook.

The winner (or loser, depending on how you look at it) of the contest will win a cash prize of $1,500 and appear on Weekend Today in NYC.

And now you can weigh in by casting your vote online for the ugliest pup!

Currently, Ellie Mae, an eight-year-old Chinese Crested Hairless Dog, is the favorite to take the title. Squiggy, a Chinese Crested-Japanese Chin mix with a sky high mohawk and omnipresent tongue, is a distant second.

The winner won't be determined by online voting though, but by a panel of judges: Jon Provost (aka Timmy from Lassie, naturally), Brian Sobel (a Sonoma-Marin Fair board member) and John Crawley (a local restaurant owner who seemingly has no expertise on ugly dogs so what is he doing there?!). The dogs will judged on shock factor, unusal attributes, audience reaction and attitude.

"These are some of the best dog owners in the world. Some of them take it very seriously," event organizer Vicki DeArmon told Today.com. "I think a few hearts have been broken when they haven't been the winner."

Are we being overly sensitive thinking this is all a little mean? What if the dogs have really great personalities? What if they're beautiful where it counts...on the inside? Where's the World's Ugliest Baby contest? Oh. Here it is.