1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Lifestyle

The World's Ugliest Dog is dead

July 11, 2018

An English bulldog has died just weeks after winning the 2018 World's Ugliest Dog contest. Floppy-tongued and crooked-toothed, Zsa Zsa was nine years old.

2018 World's Ugliest Dog contest
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/J. Chiu

In an ugly world filled with ugly dogs, Zsa Zsa stood out. A nasty underbite showed off a snaggled set of lower choppers, and she just couldn't keep her tongue in her mouth. You might have stared; you might have looked away to avoid making her, or yourself, uncomfortable. The point is that people noticed Zsa Zsa, noticed her enough that the 9-year-old's unique face became famous in June, when she was crowned the World's Ugliest Dog at a pageant in California.

Likely indifferent to the title and annoyed by the hoopla, Zsa Zsa was only able to enjoy her 15 minutes of fame for a little over two weeks before she barked her last. Zsa Zsa died dreaming, her primary human companion, a Minnesotan named Megan Brainard, told US media on Wednesday.

"I'm in shock still," Brainard told the CNN-affiliated broadcaster HLN. "I haven't even processed her winning and fame."

The Pekingese Wild Thang gave Zsa Zsa a run for her money last monthImage: picture-alliance/AP Photo/J. Chiu

Social media users, too, were bummed.

Brainard said Zsa Zsa, named after the sainted cop-slapping Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, never showed much enthusiasm in life, but she added that the bulldog knew that the beauty she was born with stood out in a world of surgical enhancements and cosmetic regimens. And she stood out on a stage with a zitty Dachsund-Chinese crested mix and a Pekingese whose tongue also lolled but who, truth be told, wasn't really all that ugly. Anyway, Zsa Zsa earned her title, which came with a $1,500 (€1,275) check for Brainard.

And just as soon as the world came to know her, she was taken from it, slobbering in her sleep just like a good dog does.

mkg/msh (AFP, AP)

Skip next section DW's Top Story

DW's Top Story

Skip next section More stories from DW