I now understand more than ever precisely what Jonathan Swift meant when he wrote the now famous words “every dog must have his day.”
It didn't take this year's Sonoma/Marin Fair’s “World’s Ugliest Dog” contest, held this past weekend in Petaluma, California, to remind me of its widely defined premise. I need only to observe our own imperfectly shaped dark golden brown Apple Head Chihuahua, commonly referred to as a “burnt potato,” by mischievous fans of her outward similar appearance to an overly done spud, that she too is due for her day in the spotlight. A moment to enjoy success and adulation however delivered, if even to be similarly crowned as Zsa Zsa the drooping tongue English Bulldog from Anoka, Minnesota was at the fair - winning the 2018 contest and taking home a trophy along with a fifteen hundred dollar check.
The contest is all in good fun and in 30 years time has done a consistently good job of snatching a uniquely well-qualified "ugly" canine from the wilds of obscurity and launching it for the short term onto the vaunted world stage of the kind of notoriety that would be ruinous to its human counterpart should any such cruelty ever present itself. I could launch off point here to rail against the human nature of some to use "ugly" as a way of describing another human beings outward appearance, but that is not the goal here.
Instead, its in part, to call out the good nature of those who adopt these misfits from pet rescues every day, not with the intention of a trophy and cash as the goal, but in finding beauty and friendship in a dog that has likely beaten long odds to win a chance at love, friendship, and companionship. Their journey in escaping the loneliness and cruelty of puppy mills is a hard one to imagine.
Zsa Zsa and her owner Megan Brainard
Zsa Zsa’s story is emerging as a result of her “ugliest dog” infamy, that grows daily from the duplication and sharing of her image on social media to an appearance on the ‘Today Show,’ and it's a heartwarming one to read and appreciate. The 9-year old, who sported a pink diamond studded collar with matching nails the day of the contest while being held lovingly in the arms of her human companion as the cameras snapped away, was luckily saved from a puppy mill in Missouri after 5 long years of breeding and put up for sale at a dog auction where Underdog Rescue purchased her. Zsa Zsa’s current owner purchased her from that same pet rescue and was quoted as “having to have her” after seeing her “beautiful” pictures on the website Pet Finder.
Currently Missouri is the top puppy mill state in the country.
Underdog Rescue and Placement was founded in 2000 by Shannon McKenzie. Having volunteered for several other animal rescue organizations, Shannon saw a need to help the dogs and cats often overlooked by other rescuers, the “Underdogs.”
The sad truth is that we live in a world where many puppy mill facilities exist that directly or indirectly contribute to perpetuating animal abuse. It is in these mills that dogs are mass produced so that the breeders can make as much profit from the offspring as possible. Presently there are thousands of USDA-licensed breeders operating in the United States. Some of these operations are so large that they contain a thousand breeding dogs. Of these thousands of licensed breeders there are countless unknown numbers of unlicensed puppy mills that exist; the ones the USDA have yet to approve nor know anything about.
It's a given that responsible breeders understand the importance of the puppies parents' health and careful genetic pairing to produce healthy litters that ultimately improve the breed. But the opposite is the case of the operators of large-scale puppy mills who value quantity, regardless of their cruel methods, over quality. Without following proper and accepted breeding practices at these overcrowded mills, unchecked egregious genetic flaws spread throughout the bred lot. Most notably is the physical and emotional abuse that runs rampant at these facilities. Yes, modern science has in fact determined that dogs experience many of the same emotions that humans do. I'll write about that in a later post.
Overcrowding, disease, and inadequate access to even the most basic veterinary care are all too common in these types of operations, leading to widespread cases of indescribable negligence and malnutrition. Severe medical conditions such as tumors, respiratory and digestive problems, to name a few, are left untreated and are all too common side effects that are bred into the puppies, reflective of the overall lack of care they receive and the unsanitary environment in which they are bred.
Unable to escape the small cramped space of germ-filled cages stacked high in hidden warehouses, the dogs, many living on wire or slatted flooring are deprived of exercise and grooming. Cuts form in their paws and legs leaving wounds that are prone to infection. Cages are often piled high in columns to save space which leads to more disease as waste falls from the top to below. It's unimaginable to consider the terrible quality of life of any animal subjected to such confines and conditions. To exacerbate the demise of a life lived in cages the dogs are caged permanently with poor lighting at best and no access to the outdoors to run free and at least on occasion to be allowed to experience some normalcy of life.
Some of the saddest videos I have ever watched surrounding the plight of puppy mill dogs are those of rescued dogs being allowed out of their crates for the first time, perhaps in their lives, to walk free on the grass and to come in contact with other dogs that were caged nearby. It's heartbreaking to think of Zsa Zsa's years at such a mill.
Most puppy mill dogs spend their entire lives in these conditions. They never enjoy the sensation of sunshine on their face, grass beneath their feet, or filling their lungs with fresh air. Cages for females are more often than not crammed with their puppies and adequate recovery time between births is never allowed. At the point that their overbreeding renders them incapable of continuing to reproduce anymore they are often killed and disposed of to make room for new females, or summarily dropped off in remote locations to fend for themselves.
In fact, the story of our little "burnt potato" is very similar to Zsa Zsa's. She found her way into our arms wobbling across a hot Walmart parking lot, dirty, thirsty, hungry, injured and exhausted, most likely after having been dumped on the street nearby after some period of overbreeding in a small-scale local puppy mill in Bakersfield, California. Indeed this was the opinion of the veterinarian who tended to her untreated injuries, injuries that probably contributed to her inability to continue to be bred and thusly dropped off in the middle of the night near a crowded shopping center. Perhaps its a minor reflection of some feeling on the part of someone from her supposed mill origins, that she would be found and taken in by a caring passerby. To this day she is obsessed with digging and burying, so I often wonder if she wasn't in a cage on bare ground from which she eventually dug out of after a very long period of time and ran away from - finding her way to that parking lot. We're so lucky to have her, and that she wasn't accidentally run over in such a busy part of that town is a small miracle.
She was so starved for attention at first that you seemingly couldn't stop petting her once you started. After an initial stroke of her fragile torso, she would coax and claw at your hand to continue, as if nothing had ever felt so kind and comforting as to have her skin stroked gently by an admirer, as opposed to who knows what she was exposed to in the caged world which she likely came to us from. It hurts to imagine that she, possibly like Zsa Zsa, was rarely if ever shown any affection through touch, soft talk, or other basic forms of attention and kindness.
Martha
The underrated backstory of Zsa Zsa’s victory is that of the transfer of her crown from the reigning winner Martha, a Neapolitan Mastiff whose sagging cheeks were hugely influential in her choice as last year’s winner. There is a bond that now exists between the two “ugliest,” and that is they both, as have previous winners, showcase the lovable, unique qualities of all dogs when viewed by their owners, as imperfections, because to them, they are perfect in every way. Martha may now return to a life far away from celebrity and get back to what she does best, acting as a loyal companion to her owner who loves and cares for her in spite of cheeks that droop nearly to her knees.
Zsa Zsa and Martha now share a not so dubious distinction; that their "ugliness," understood and embraced by those in attendance at the contest, and by most dog lovers, especially their owners - is an actual form of beauty they uniquely define. In fact, if their owners were, in a not so distant future, offered surgery and procedures to fix their lolling tongues and droopy cheeks to make them look more normal, more appropriately shaped to represent the best of their breed, the offer would likely be ignored albeit with a measure of contempt.
"We're proud to celebrate all dogs and pets by showing that no matter their imperfections, they are adoptable, lovable and a great addition to any family," says Erin Post, CEO of the Sonoma-Marin Fair, where the contest is held.
"Some people come into our life as a blessing, while others come into our life as a lesson, so love them for who they are instead of judging them for who they are not."
This quote from Yolanda Hadid, obviously written about the human condition, is still a good one to consider when summing up the good-natured fun of the contest that introduced us this year to Zsa Zsa. In the midst of that enormously large tongue is a slobbery smile, a crooked furrowed brow, pushed-in nose, and an undershot jaw with hanging chops that get caught up on not so perfect teeth, all below eyes that seem to tell everyone, that her life is now complete in spite of her award-winning imperfections, and her cruel puppy mill upbringing.
That Zsa Zsa was rescued from a puppy mill and purchased from an agency called Underdog, and is now as famous and loved as any Bulldog in the world is wonderfully seeped and slobbered in beautiful irony.