An annual camel beauty pageant in Saudi Arabia has seen a dozen contestants disqualified over the use of plastic surgery and botox to enhance the animals’ natural features.
Around 30,000 camels participated in the 2018 King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, which celebrates the traditional beast of burden.
But this year’s prize money of over $5 million in each of the contest categories apparently proved irresistible to some less-than-honorable entrants.
“They use Botox for the lips, the nose, the upper lips, the lower lips and even the jaw,” Ali Al Mazrouei, the son of a top Emirati breeder, told United Arab Emirates newspaper The National.
“It makes the head more inflated so when the camel comes it’s like, ‘Oh look at how big is that head is. It has big lips, a big nose.’”
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