Organizers of a popular camel beauty contest in Saudi Arabia have disqualified 43 contestants after cracking down on Botox injections and other forms of “tampering” by breeders.
The 40-day King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, located about 100 kilometers (62 miles) northeast of the capital, Riyadh, launched at the beginning of December. In its sixth year, it sees breeders compete for more than $66 million in prize money, according to Saudi state media outlet Saudi Press Agency (SPA), so the stakes are high. Unscrupulous breeders have been accused of using a number of methods to make their camels more likely to win, such as injecting silicone and fillers, and inflating body parts using rubber bands to enhance their appearance, reports SPA.
