In one realm there is a “hairless mutant” with no teeth and a crooked face, a creature resembling a “hyena or mandrill baboon”, and a canid with a “gorilla-like head”, A Chihuahua hybrid named Mr. Happy Face became the ugliest of all on Friday as the winner of the 2022 World’s Ugliest Dog contest.
Mr Happy Face had lived with hoarders in abusive and neglected environments, suffered from tumors and neurological problems, needed diapers, had difficulty standing or walking, and had tilted his head.
However, according to the online biography, he has reached the age of about 17, sporting a natural Mohawk style, and when he is happy, he will make “sound like a Dodge Ram diesel truck” to rev up the engine.
“It’s clear that Mr. Happy Face deserves the title,” Debra Mathy, one of the competition’s judges, said Saturday, adding that the judges didn’t even bother to debate who should win. “This dog has overcome all obstacles physically and in his past life – it’s amazing.”
The dog and its owner, Jeneda Benally, won $1,500 and a trip to New York City for the “Today” show.
The competition says it promotes the adoption of dogs, even those that may “have no fur, cross eyes, duck waddles or mismatched ears”. Eight dogs walked the red carpet at an event held during the Sonoma-Marin Expo in Petaluma, California, which has been going on for nearly 50 years. It resumed Friday after suspending 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic.
“They are promoting rescue dogs that all dogs, regardless of their appearance, deserve to be loved,” Ms Massey said.
When Ms. Benally adopted Mr. Happy Face from a shelter in Arizona, “the shelter staff tried to prepare me for what I was about to see,” she wrote on the competition’s website. Mr Happy Face had been in the shelter for “considerable time” and a veterinarian estimated he had only a few weeks or at most a month to live.
“I swore that day that he would be so loved that he would never remember how bad his life was before,” Ms Benelli wrote. In his new home, Mr. Happy Face has lived to 10 months.
The $1,000 prize went to second place rabies survivor Wild Thang, who is now toothless and has his tongue stuck out forever.
Wild Thang was a “cute mess”, Ms Mathy said, adding that the dog “looks like 50 pounds but only weighs 6 because it’s all fur.”
Previous contest winners include “Scamp the Tramp” in 2019, “an unknown dog with round eyes, no teeth, and stubby legs” in 2019, and Mala the Neapolitan mastiff in 2017 Sha, “Red, swollen eyes, drooling, sagging skin”.