Dozens of camels barred from Saudi ‘beauty’ contest over Botox

Authorities in Saudi Arabia have launched their biggest-ever crackdown on camel “beauty” contestants that received Botox injections and other artificial touch-ups with 40 dromedaries disqualified from the annual pageant.

Judges at the monthlong festival in the desert northeast of the capital, Riyadh, escalated their clampdown on artificially enhanced camels using “specialised and advanced” technology to detect tampering, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia’s popular King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, which kicked off earlier this month, invites the breeders of the most beautiful camels to compete for some $66m in prize money.

Botox injections, face-lifts, and other cosmetic alterations to make the camels more attractive are strictly prohibited. Jurors decide the winner based on the shape of the camels’ heads, necks, humps, dress and posture.

This year, authorities discovered dozens of breeders had stretched out the lips and noses of camels, used hormones to boost the beasts’ muscles, injected camels’ heads and lips with Botox to make them bigger, inflated body parts with rubber bands, and used fillers to relax their faces.

“The club is keen to halt all acts of tampering and deception in the beautification of camels,” the SPA report said, adding organisers would “impose strict penalties on manipulators”.

The camel beauty contest is at the heart of the massive carnival, which also features camel races, sales, and other festivities typically showcasing thousands of dromedaries.

The extravaganza seeks to preserve the camel’s role in the kingdom’s Bedouin tradition and heritage, even as the oil-rich country ploughs ahead with modernising mega-projects.

Camel breeding is a multimillion-dollar industry and similar events take place across the region.