A friend adopted an objectively ugly old dog from the pound. He'd spent most of his life in a cage, being passed up time after time. When I asked her why she picked him, she said "it is easy to love the pretty ones". The dog died just 4 months after adoption, but she gave him a loving home for his last days.

Her words stayed with me. We are so hardwired to like the "cute" and we look past those animals / people / plants not fortunate enough to meet that metric.