World's Ugliest Dog winner is blind chihuahua with bowed legs

A 17-year-old Chinese crested chihuahua with legs bowed out like a frog won the 2016 World’s Ugliest Dog contest on Friday night.

SweePee Rambo took home the title at the annual Petaluma World’s Ugliest Dog contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds after besting 15 other malformed pooches, The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported.

Judges in the contest, now on its 28th year, take into account factors including stench, poor complexion and other inherited and acquired maladies.

SweePee has a mohawk that glistens in the sun and a tongue that sticks out. She is blind in both eyes and has to wear doggie diapers.

Owner Jason Wurtz, 44, of Encino, said he got the dog as a gift for his first wife but after a week she didn’t want anything to do with it. Wurtz said he couldn’t bear to let her go, calling her a “ride or die chick” in the description he wrote for the contest.

When the 4lb dog was announced the winner, Wurtz’s younger brother, Jeffrey Wurtz, burst into tears, shouting SweePee’s name and shaking a homemade sign that read “SweePee Rambo for President 2016”.

The presidential election was a theme throughout the contest. One pup named Himisaboo, who didn’t place, had a flowing golden tuft that resembled that of the presumptive Republican nominee.

“Whether you love him, or loathe him, a vote for Himisaboo is a vote for a dog that looks like Donald Trump,” said Heather Wilson, Himisaboo’s owner, who drove from Idaho for the occasion.

Jason Wurtz and SweePee took the title and trophy and a prize of $1,500. Wurtz said he would use the money to pay for the removal of a tumor that recently popped up on SweePee’s gum line.

• Correction: an earlier version of this story erroneously stated SweePee had an ‘oozing sore’. Here’s the full explanation for our correction.