This year's winner of the World's Ugliest Dog contest is Quasi Modo, a 10-year-old pitbull-Dutch shepherd mix with a spinal birth defect, the Associated Pressreports. Quasi Modo hails from Loxahatchee, Florida, and her birth defect gives her a hunchbacked appearance, which explains her name.
Quasi Modo and her owner beat 25 other (apparently very ugly) dogs at this year's competition, held at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds in Petaluma, California. The pair took home $1,500 in prize money.
According to Quasi Modo's biography posted on the contest's website, the sparky mutt has a "bubbly personality," despite her somewhat traumatic history—Quasi Modo was abandoned at an animal shelter before she was adopted:
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In second and third place were two Chihuahau mixes named Sweepee Rambo and Frodo, respectively. According to the AP, a three-judge panel rated the dogs in categories like "special or unusual attributes, personality and natural ugliness."
Check out photos of Quasi Modo and this year's other (ugly) contestants here.
[via the Associated Press]
