125-pound mastiff plops down to walk away with ugly crown

PETALUMA, Calif. — Martha is big, ugly, lazy and gassy. And a world champion.

In a competition annually dominated by the old, the tiny and the hairless, the 3-year-old, 125-pound Neapolitan Mastiff used her lollygagging youth to win the 29th annual World’s Ugliest Dog Contest.

She was a favorite of the crowd from the start Friday night, often plopping down on her side on stage with her droopy face spread across the ground when she was supposed to be showing off.

“Do you know you just won the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest?” asked Kerry Sanders of NBC News, one of three judges who gave Martha the crown. Her handler Shirley Zindler answered for her: “I’d gloat, but I need a nap.”

Martha lumbered away with $1,500, a trophy and a trip to New York.

The dog, from Sebastopol, Calif., was rescued when she was nearly blind from neglect by the Dogwood Animal Rescue Project in Sonoma County, where the contest was held. After several surgeries, she can see again, Zindler said.

The only animal in this year’s contest too big to be held by her handler, Martha beat out 13 other dogs.

Moe, a 16-year-old Brussels Griffon-pug mix from Santa Rosa, Calif., came in second. Chase, a 14-yearold Chinese Crested-Harke mix from Neath, United Kingdom, placed third.

The contestants were judged on first impressions, unusual attributes, personality and audience reaction. Many of the contestants — some with acne, others with tongues permanently sticking out — are used to getting called ugly.

But for their owners, it was love at first sight. “He’s my sexy boy,” Vicky Adler, of Davis, Calif., said of her 8-year-old Chinese Crested named Zoomer.

MONICA M. DAVEY/EPA Martha, a 3-year-old, 125-pound mastiff, was judged to be the World’s Ugliest Dog.