Congratulations? Zsa Zsa, an English bulldog, wins the most mordant contest in the world

Her tongue comes off her mouth, float so low that she threatens to touch the ground.

His face is wrinkled and his teeth protrude in a sub-occlusion.

Stout and barrel-torso, she has a figure that few would call girl.

In other words, Zsa Zsa, a 9-year-old English bulldog, had all it took to impress the judges on Saturday night at the ugliest dog show in Petaluma, California, where she defeated 13 other dogs to take the title.

The event, like its unsightly competitors, could be misunderstood at first glance. the The ugliest contest in the world is actually a celebration of dogs, many of whom have been rescued from shelters or puppy mills, and is intended to promote the adoption of pets.

This year's competitors included a formerly obese dog with sagging skin; a dog with a twisted face and different colored eyes who had already won six other ugly dog ​​shows; and a blind, hairless creature who seemed to wonder why she had been entered in the contest in the first place. "I know I'm too pretty to win," reads a biography of the dog.

After After spending five years in a puppy mill in Missouri, she was auctioned off and bought by a rescue group. She was later adopted by Megan Brainard of Anoka, Minn.

Ms. Brainard said that she named the bulldog after the Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, opting for a glamorous name after all that the dog had lived. "She's just so ugly, she's beautiful," Ms. Brainard said.

Despite the name of the contest, Zsa Zsa tried to look presentable for the occasion: pink manicure and wore a sparkling pink necklace. Yet she could not hide her straight jowls and crooked teeth from the judges.

But Ms. Brainard said that she believed that it was also the personality of Zsa Zsa who seduced the judges. "She was eating some of a slim Jim on the table and sneezing all around them and drooling on it," she said.

Last year, a 125 pound Neapolitan man with red eyes, uncontrollable drool and baggy skin took the title. The year before, the first place went to a 17-year-old blind Chinese Chihuahua.

The victory of Zsa Zsa comes with a prize of $ 1,500 and a bright pink trophy that is several times its size.