Come December, connoisseurs of beauty in the Middle East began prepping for one of their favorite annual fêtes. Titled King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, the month-long festival is held near the capital city of Riyadh.
According to a government portal, the cultural and economic sports festival in Saudi Arabia, under royal patronage, aims to consolidate and strengthen the camel heritage in the Saudi, Arab and Islamic culture. Reports suggest that thousands of Saudis gather to celebrate the animal's significance in Arab history.
The festival initially began in Saudi Arabia but has now, over the years, sprawled to other neighboring countries including UAE. Considering the competition and the big money involved, often breeders participating in the fest, resort to unacceptable measures to ensure a neat spot for their camels in the beauty contest.
Botox injections, artificial touch-ups, lip-jobs, facelifts, and other bizarre, cosmetic alterations to make the camels more attractive were brought to the notice of the jury this year and the committee has taken a stern stand to announce the tampering business.
An Associated Press article stated that 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 camel body parts with rubber bands and used fillers to relax their faces.
As many as 40 camels were disqualified from the beauty contest, a state-run Saudi Press Agency reported recently. Apparently, this year, the judges are using "specialized and advanced" technology to detect tampering.
"In 2018, 12 camels were banned for the same reasons at the festival, which also features camel milk tasting."
— Charles Apple (@charlesapple) December 11, 2021
Ew.
An Al-Arabiya site furthered that apart from visual inspection, the contesting camels also undergo x-rays, ultrasound tests, and genetic analysis to make it to the top spot.
For some netizens, the news of a camel beauty pageant came as a surprise, others felt such extreme measures to fetch money off the poor animals, was just bizarre.
Several camels have been disqualified from the annual Saudi Arabia beauty contest for using botox. Shameful. Remember the good old days when all camels did was smoke a few unfiltered cigarettes to lose some weight.
— Lenny (@LenKenshow) December 11, 2021
While the camel fest has already begun in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi is raring to host the event starting December 14. Contestants at the Madinat Zayed Camel Beauty Pageant, part of the annual Al Dhafra Festival can expect prize money worth $30 million here.
