The 'World's Ugliest Dog' Is A Mastiff Named Martha From Northern California

PETALUMA, CA — The 2017 winner of the annual World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair, an internationally ogled event that celebrates all the ways canine inbreeding can go wrong, is a departure from most previous winners in one very obvious way: She's gigantic. (Photos and video below.)

Martha, a 3-year-old Neapolitan Mastiff from the quaint Northern California forest town of Sebastopol, beat out more than a dozen small, yippy types to clinch the title at this year's Sonoma-Marin Fair.

She "won over the judges and the crowd for her drooling chops, excess skin and wrinkles," a contest spokeswoman said in a press release.

And the contest's chief judge, Brian Sobel, added: “We were impressed by a 125-pound dog with 300 pounds of skin. ... Martha was the overwhelming crowd favorite.”

Shirley Dawn Zindler, who works for the local, Sebastapol-based Dogwood Animal Rescue Group, is Martha's foster mom. Here's what she had to say about her big winner:

"Martha is a 3-year-old Neapolitan Mastiff who came to our rescue group in Sebastopol California in chronic pain and nearly blind from a long neglected eye condition. After several surgeries, she has regained much of her sight and is now pain free for the first time in her life. As she has recovered from surgery and is feeling better, a delightfully funny and affectionate girl has emerged. She's 125 pounds of drooling, snoring, gassy, loud and silly girl. She knocks over every water bucket no matter how securely attached to the fence. She bosses the other dogs around and makes sure all guests are suitably slimed on arrival. This is our first tome entering."

As a reward for being so ugly, Martha was awarded $1,500, a massive gold trophy and a trip with her owner to New York City.

Here's a ghastly gallery of the 13 runners-up in this year's contest, if you're into small dogs with gnarly overbites and weird hair tufts and protruding penises and stuff.

And below are some more portraits of the inimitable Martha, in all her "drooling, snoring, gassy, loud and silly" glory.