SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
A Dozen Camels Disqualified From Saudi Beauty Pageant Over Botox Injections
Some pageant contestants hit a hump in the road this week. That is, a camel beauty contest in Saudi Arabia disqualified a dozen camels for receiving Botox injections to make them more attractive.
Saudi media reported that a veterinarian was caught performing plastic surgery on the camels a few days before the pageant, according to UAE's The National. In addition to the injections, the clinic was surgically reducing the size of the animals' ears to make them appear more delicate.
"They use Botox for the lips, the nose, the upper lips, the lower lips and even the jaw," Ali Al Mazrouei, a regular at such festivals and the son of a prominent Emirati breeder, told the newspaper. "It makes the head more inflated so when the camel comes it's like, 'Oh look at how big that head is. It has big lips, a big nose.' "
Real money is at stake: About $57 million is awarded to winners of the contests and camel races, The National reports, with more than $31.8 million in prizes for just the pageants.
Also at The New York Times, Reuters, and Newsweek.
Check out the world's tallest camel
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday January 25 2018, @06:51PM (3 children)
How so?
The baseline behavior for a cat is to simply ignore you.
Terrible upbringing in a dog means the dog attacks you, and depending on the size and power of the dog, you either die or need surgery, or if it's a tiny dog just stitches. Not quite as bad behavior in a dog is to bark for hours on end, causing neighbors to call the police with noise complaints in some jurisdictions.
For a cat to physically attack you, it either has to have rabies, or it's been badly abused, or it just doesn't like you and you're not leaving it alone so it swats you to get you to go away. They're not always the most affectionate or interested pets (some are, some aren't), but if you don't fuck with them, they're generally extremely safe. Dogs attacking people and other animals, however, isn't uncommon at all, and many of them are specifically bred for it (such as pit bulls).
(Score: 2) by t-3 on Thursday January 25 2018, @09:46PM (2 children)
Never had a tomcat? I used to have one, he would shit on top of the fridge or kitchen cabinets and try to mountain lion jump onto your back. He would wait for people walking by so that he could get at their feet and legs. He even learned how to open the back door and screen door so he could get outside and line birds up on the porch.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday January 25 2018, @10:56PM (1 child)
I've had quite a few cats, and I will say that stray or formerly-feral male cats can indeed have real behavior problems, especially if they're unneutered or not neutered until adulthood. I'd avoid those if possible. Females are usually better, and any cat that was neutered early and had human contact early enough in its life is usually fine. I used to have a female cat that was a trapped feral cat, probably around 6 months old when we got it, but definitely not a year old; that cat had behavior problems and did get better over time, but was never very affectionate. Just remember that the later a cat is socialized with humans, the worse it's going to be, in general. And since a cat reaches adulthood in only 1 year, you don't have a lot of time.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday January 26 2018, @01:13AM
I have to agree. Cats are really only half-domesticated, and mostly need to be acclimated to people and houses from a young age to blunt the "wild animal" instincts. Not sure that dogs are necessarily that much different in that respect - a dog that grows to adulthood feral will generally not make a good pet, and is far more dangerous than a similarly feral cat.