The Camel Beauty Contest

Every year Saudi Arabia has a beauty contest for camels. They are looking for long, droopy lips, a big nose and a shapely hump. The contest provides $66,000,000 in prize money. It is the largest in the world and lasts 40 days. This year 33,000 camel owners from as far away as the US, Russia and France are participating. It is quite popular; about 100,000 tourists visit every day.

This year's contest had a major problem: more than 40 camels have been disqualified for receiving Botox injections and other cosmetic enhancements.  Twenty-seven contestants in the cup for Majaheim camels alone were disqualified for having stretched body parts and 16 were ejected for having received injections. Botox was injected into camels' lips, noses, jaws and other parts of their heads to relax muscles; collagen fillers were used to make their lips and noses bigger; and hormones were given to boost muscle growth. Rubber bands were also used on animals to make body parts bigger than nor mal by restricting the flow of blood.