SoylentNews

An Anonymous Coward writes:

A Dozen Camels Disqualified From Saudi Beauty Pageant Over Botox Injections [npr.org]

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 [thenational.ae] 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 [nytimes.com], Reuters [reuters.com], and Newsweek [newsweek.com].

Check out the world’s tallest camel [arabnews.com]

Original Submission