Camels Injected with Botox at “Cruel” Saudi Arabia Beauty Pageant
Over 40 contestants have been eliminated from the popular camel beauty contest after it was revealed that they were making artificial alterations to the animals.
Photo: Amy Jones/Moving Animals
More than 40 contestants of a popular camel beauty contest in Saudi Arabia have been disqualified after organizers cracked down on the use of Botox injections and other artificial alterations.
The King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, which takes place in the desert northeast of the capital, Riyadh, is a 40-day contest that began earlier this month. Breeders submit their “most beautiful camels” to compete for up to $66 million in prize money, according to Saudi state media outlet Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
The winner is decided based on the shape of the animals’ heads, necks, humps, dress, and postures, with botox injections, facelifts, and other cosmetic alterations banned.
However, this year, the authorities discovered dozens of breeders had stretched out the lips and noses of camels, used hormones to boost the animals’ muscles, injected heads and lips with Botox to make them bigger, inflated body parts with rubber bands, and used fillers to relax their faces.
The beauty contest has come under fire from animal advocacy activists who have described the contest as a described the event as a "cruel farce".
“Subjecting any animal to a cosmetic procedure, from ear cropping to declawing, dehorning, and filler injections is hideously cruel. And, shows the humans who use such tactics to be extremely ugly,” said Jason Baker, senior vice-president of animal rights group PETA Asia.
Baker said animal welfare issues needed to be addressed throughout the Middle East and Asia and called on Saudi authorities to crack down on any event that exploits or abuses animals.
Camel breeding is a multimillion-dollar industry and similar events take place across the region.
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The footage was reportedly recorded at Marshall BioResources in North Rose, New York, where up to 22,000 dogs - mostly beagles - are being bred for animal experimentation.