When Rascal scored the title of World’s Ugliest Dog in 2002, the 7-pound hairless Chinese Crested was just another Hollywood wannabe.
Now the 9-year-old dog has several films under his collar, including “Tele-Zombie” and “Curse of the Smoke O’Lantern,” according to his page on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com).
“Horror movies just love him because he’s so strange looking,” says Rascal’s owner Dane Andrew, also an actor, in an interview with the Palm Desert Sun.
The 9-year-old Chinese Crested, who sports spotted, hairless skin and a tuft of white hair on his head, is Andrew’s fourth “World’s Ugliest Dog” winner. His first, a Chinese Crested shelter dog named Chi Chi, took the top prize at the annual competition, held at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma, Calif., more than 30 years ago. Andrew has been breeding the unusual-looking dogs ever since.
While he doesn’t agree with the unflattering title, Andrew hopes Rascal’s notoriety can benefit animal causes.
“That’s the main thing that I think can come out of his fame,” Andrew says. “I don’t think he’s ugly at all.”