A 9-year-old English bulldog named Sza Sza won Saturday night in the San Francisco area, the competition for the ugliest dog in the world.

The unsightly canine has won a US $1,500 purse from owner Megan Brainard of Minnesota. According to the organizing committee of the competition, the woman found Sza Sza at a pet adoption site.

Aspirants of the title had to walk with their masters on a red carpet and were judged by a panel of judges. Imperfections, such as uneven coats or hanging tongues, were rewarded.

Among them is a bastard – a mixture of dachshund and Chinese crested dog – covered with black dots, or a cross bulldog with an impressive amount of wrinkled and dangling skin.

Last year, it was Martha, a 57-kilogram (125-pound) docile Neapolitan man with a heavy face and flatulence, who had been chosen by the judges.

The competition, held at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma, north of San Francisco, was in its 30th year.

Justin Beaver, the stuffed beaver of a Cheam Lake Wetland Interpretive Park in Chilliwack, a municipality about 100 kilometers (62 Miles) east of Vancouver, was stolen in mid-April.

The animal, which owes its nickname to park staff, vanished during a presentation to a group of “very energetic” freshmen, says park technician Gord Gadsden.

While Mr. Gadsden was making a presentation, it was rumored that there was a snake, he says. The rumor quickly dissipated when everyone realized that it was more of a snake-shaped branch.

In the confusion, Justin Beaver fell into oblivion, and the group continued its visit.

It was only when he returned to the scene that Gord Gadsden realized that the beaver was missing.

New life after accidental death

Justin Beaver’s professional career began a bit abruptly a decade ago when he was hit by a car “crossing the road without looking both ways,” says Gord Gadsden.

The animal was therefore stuffed and became one of the key players in the interpretation of Cheam Lake wetlands.

According to Mr. Gadsden, Justin Beaver contributes to the learning of 700 to 1000 people a year during park tours.

Anyone who has seen this beaver “looking really patient, weighing about 20 pounds [9 kg] and missing claws” is asked to contact the Regional District of the Fraser Valley.

In less than four years, Dylan McWilliams was bitten by a snake, woke up one morning in the mouth of a bear and thought he was losing his leg in the jaw of a shark in Hawaii.

“My parents are grateful that I’m still alive,” the 20-year-old Colorado native told the Honolulu Star Advertiser newspaper about his latest misadventure.

Dylan was doing bodyboarding Thursday off the island of Kauai when what appears to be a tiger shark about 2 meters caught his leg.

The young man, a great lover of space and a lifeguard instructor, then managed to swim about 30 meters to the coast, where a passerby called for help. “I did not know if I had lost half of my leg or anything,” he says.

Dylan McWilliams finally came out with just seven stitches. Last July, we talked about nine points on the scalp after a bad encounter with a brown bear in a summer camp in Colorado.

A misadventure he told the media around the world. The young man had woken his head between the fangs of the plantigrade, which dragged him to the ground.

“He caught me … then he shot me, and then he bit the back of my head and dragged me. When he dragged me, it was the part that was the slowest. I felt it was an eternity, “Dylan told Denver 7, describing the bear’s breath on his neck.

After dragging him on the ground for about four meters, the animal did not let go until Dylan McWilliams’ fingers were well buried in his eye, he said. “I think I was right in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said the philosopher, the young man.

He had already been bitten by a rattlesnake on a hike in Utah. But, he told the Star Advertiser , the bite was not so bad, and he was sick only a few days.

A British-Columbian trucker saved a moose baby buried in the snow last week while on the road in the northern part of the province during his shift.

“I saw something weird coming out of the snow. I was not sure what it was. ”

What was not the surprise of Wayne Rowley in becoming aware that what he saw exceed a snow bank, it was actually the legs of a young moose unable to emerge.

he man was on a forest road near Vanderhoof, in the north of the province, where heavy snow had made it difficult for moose in the area.

He explains that he did not believe at the time that the moose was still alive. When he approached, the animal turned in his direction.

“He was watching me without moving,” he recalls.

The trucker grabbed a shovel to clear the moose. He also took some precautions. He explains that he has created a barrier to prevent the moose from being able to hit him.

With the help of another driver, he put a rope around the animal to straighten it on its legs.

“Once released, the moose gave me a funny look and then left,” says the trucker.

A diminishing species

Roy Rea, a professor in the Ecosystem Science and Management Program at the University of Northern British Columbia, says the moose population is dropping dramatically in the province.

It is important to take steps to help animals where possible, he says.

Winter can be particularly difficult for moose, which have more difficulty moving in powdery snow, according to the expert.

Eight moose have died on the roads of the province last week alone, notes Wayne Rowley. They were hit by cars trying to cross highways to avoid snow-covered roads.

Authorities are asking motorists to slow down and pay close attention to animals on the roads.

Visitors to a New Zealand beach have been equally fascinated and repulsed by seeing a strange sea creature which has recently washed up on the shore. Some consider the 30-foot long grisly monster to be some sort of prehistoric creature.

Scientists have identified the remains of the so-called sea monster as most likely that of an orca killer whale. A marine mammal expert who recently viewed a video of what washed up on the coast says it features a flipper which is a distinct characteristic of killer whales.

Because of the deterioration of the creature’s body, the cause of death isn’t able to be determined. Orcas live together in groups known as pods, but often come under attack from fishermen, especially in Alaskan ocean waters where they both compete for food.

Often fishermen will shoot at killer whales and those who succumb to their injuries often float away until they reach the seashore thousands of miles away. Sometimes their carcasses are so discolored and decayed that they become known as Marine blobsters and frequently mistaken for unknown sea creatures.

Once tissue testing is done on these foreign blobsters by scientific research teams, they are usually traced to one or another species of whale.

Jacque Sands, the general manager of the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum told the newspaper that the house was not severely damaged by the cyclone, and that the museum’s 10 staffers and the dozens of polydactyl felines that populate the property are safe and accounted for.

The museum’s staff made headlines after announcing that they wouldn’t heed orders to evacuate the Keys, thought to be particularly vulnerable to Irma’s wind and rain.

One of Mr Hemingway’s granddaughters, the actress Mariel Hemingway, had urged the general manager of the home and museum, Jacque Sands, to evacuate.

“I think you’re wonderful and an admirable person for trying to stay there and to try to save the cats and the house,” she said in a video posted by TMZ, but “this is frightening. This hurricane is a big deal.”

“Get in the car with the cats and take off,” Ms Hemingway had begged.

Mr Hemingway, arguably one of the most famous cat loving writers, once wrote: “A cat has absolute emotional honesty. Human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.”