This year’s World’s Ugliest Dog is a Pekingese named Wild Thang. The dog, from Coos Bay, Oregon, has competed in five previous World’s Ugliest Dog competitions, but only won this Friday (June 21).
Wild Thang and owner Ann Lewis will take home a cheque for $5,000 and be flown to New York for a special appearance on NBC’s The Today Show next Monday.
Second place in the annual competition to raise awareness of animal rescue and adoption went to a first-time entrant, a wheelchair-bound 14-year-old pug named Rome. His owner, Michelle Grady of Rohnert Park, California, was thrilled with the result.
“To win second place out of everybody that was here is a real honor, it’s a real honor. We’re a little bit of local color so I love it,” Grady said. “I love this whole contest. I love that it represents dogs that are imperfect — imperfectly perfect — and yeah Rome, he had the best time. He really did he had the best time.”
Third place in the 2024 show went to another first-time contestant and 14-year-old dog, a white coated, mixed breed rescue named Daisy May. Her owner Elizabeth Whitehouse, from Lafayette California, was shocked to win.
“This was not my idea it was my daughter’s idea and I didn’t think she had a chance. I thought that she would be the most beautiful ugly dog, but as it turns out, other people don’t see the beauty in her that I do.”
(Reuters)