Wild Thang, an eight-year-old Pekingese, has been topped the winner of this 12 months’s World’s Ugliest Canine competitors.

Held throughout the 2024 Sonoma-Marin Honest in Petaluma, California, this 12 months’s contest included 9 contenders – the bulk rescues who got here from shelters earlier than discovering their eternally households.

Wild Thang, from Coos Bay, Oregon, has competed 5 instances in earlier World’s Ugliest Canine competitions, however that is his first win.

Wild Thang’s distinctive seems are as a result of a case of canine distemper when he was a 10-week-old pet.

The illness prevented the expansion of his tooth, therefore the dangling tongue, and muscular dysfunction in one in all his legs.

The World’s Ugliest Canine competitors has been held for practically 50 years and “celebrates the imperfections that make all canines particular and distinctive”, based on its web site.

Wild Thang, and his proprietor Ann Lewis, will obtain $5,000 and on NBC’s The At this time Present.

A 14-year-old pug in a wheelchair named Rome got here in second place and receives a prize of $3,000. It was Rome’s first entry into the competition.

“I like that [the competition] represents canines which might be imperfect — imperfectly excellent,” Rome’s proprietor Michelle Grady mentioned.