Scamp the Tramp, a bug-eyed, dreadlocked pooch, took top honours on Friday at the 31st annual World’s Ugliest Dog Contest.
Owner Yvonne Morones won an appearance with Scamp on the Today show, $1,500 in cash, $1,500 to donate to an animal shelter and a trophy the size of a rottweiler.
Scamp beat out more than a dozen other ugly (but yet still beautiful) dogs at the 2019 edition of the competition – one that has been going since the 1970s. The contest is held every year at the Sonoma-Marin fair in Petaluma.
His human, Yvonne Morones from Santa Rosa, told BuzzFeed News that Scamp’s untamable fur reminds her of boxing promoter Don King’s legendary hair. “He has this hair that just kind of stands straight up,” she told the publication. “His body hair doesn’t grow, but instead he’s got these dreads that just happen naturally, and the top of his hair is gray and it just stands straight up.”
It was Scamp’s fourth competition, said Morones, and last year he was runner-up.
The street dog from Compton was rescued by Morones in 2014 after she spotted him on Pet Finder.
“It was on the way home that I knew I made the right choice,” Morones told the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat. “There we were, two strangers in a car on the way home to a new start. Bob Marley was playing One Love and I looked over and little Scamp was bobbing his head. It was like he knew he had found his forever home.”
For their efforts, Morones and Scamp have won an appearance on the Today show, $1,500 in cash, $1,500 to donate to an animal shelter and a trophy the size of a rottweiler.
“He’s Scamp the Champ, no longer Scamp the Tramp,” Morones told the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat. “I think the audience saw his beautiful spirit and everything he’s given back to the community.”
When not winning major competitions, Scamp makes volunteer visits to schoolchildren and a local senior citizens centre.