Texarkana Gazette

Huge, homely mastiff named Martha wins ugliest dog

-

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 Northern California crowd from the start, often plopping down on her side on stage with her droopy face spread across the ground when she was supposed to be showing off. The judges didn’t even need to hear her signature snore to give her the award.

“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 flashy trophy and a trip to New York for media appearance­s, all things she could hardly care less about.

The dog, from nearby Sebastopol, 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 now 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, most of them the kind of older, smaller dogs who win here.

 ?? AP Photo/ Eric Risberg ?? Shirley Zindler, of Sebastopol, Calif, lifts up the jowls of Martha, a Neapolitan mastiff, during the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest on Friday at the SonomaMari­n Fair in Petaluma, Calif. Martha was the winner of the event.
AP Photo/ Eric Risberg Shirley Zindler, of Sebastopol, Calif, lifts up the jowls of Martha, a Neapolitan mastiff, during the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest on Friday at the SonomaMari­n Fair in Petaluma, Calif. Martha was the winner of the event.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States