Runway scene from the King Adulaziz Camel Festival

where camels were ejected from beauty contest over Botox use and other ‘tampering.’ 

Organizers of a popular camel beauty contest in Saudi Arabia have disqualified 43 contestants after cracking down on Botox injections and other forms of tampering by breeders.

The 40-day King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, near Riyadh, in its sixth year, sees breeders compete for more than $66 million in cash prizes, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), so the stakes are high.

Unscrupulous breeders have been accused of using a number of methods to make their camels more likely to win, and this year organizers have dealt with the largest number since the festival began.

Marzouk Al-Natto, spokesman for the festival’s legal committee, said that breeders found to be tampering have to pay fines which vary according to the offense, reports SPA.

Camels are an important part of Saudi culture. The animals are well-adapted to life in deserts such as the Arabian Desert, large parts of which lie within the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

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“mankind is tampering with the fabric of nature and it is not working out well for them.”

― steven macgee

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Credits: Photo credit: Faisal Al-Nasser/AFP/Getty Images, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jack Guy, CNN