He came to the 75th Sonoma-Marin Fair Friday night! He saw! And, oh boy, did Peanut, a shelter rescue dog of unknown heritage with deformed lips and eyelids, conquer.
At Friday night's Drooling, Needs Schooling, Gonna Win - No Fooling World’s Ugliest Dog Contest at the Fair, the competition was fierce. But Peanut, who had been at an animal hospital for nine months before Holly Chandler adopted him, is returning to his Greenville, North Carolina home with honors as both the overall 2014 Winner and the 2014 Ugliest Mutt.
Peanut's ugliest dog creds go beyond his deformed lips and eyelids: according to Chandler, he "no longer has hair on much of his body including his tail, legs, feet, and face," because he was seriously burned as a puppy.
Because of all that (plus his sparkling personality), judges Brian Sobel (a member of the fair board), San Francisco Giants' in-game television reporter Amy Gutierrez, and Cameron Mathison of Good Morning America and Dancing With the Stars voted to give Peanut the $1,500 prize and four foot tall trophy.
According to the Associated Press, Chandler plans to use the $1,500 prize to pay for other animals' veterinary bills.
Quasi Modo, who was dubbed second place winner in the Ugliest Mutt category, was abandoned at a shelter, until one of the vets there adopted him. He sports multiple birth defects to my spine, "saying" that "my back is too short for the rest of my body and the parts went together in the worst possible way."
SweePee Rambo, a Chinese Crested Chihuahua, was crowned Ugliest Pedigree dog.
Previously: Meet This Year's Candidates For World's Ugliest Dog