12 Camels Injected With Botox Disqualified From 'Miss Camel' Beauty Contest

Twelve contestants of a camel beauty contest in Saudi Arabia have been disqualified after their owners were discovered to have been using Botox to tweak their appearances.

The camels, which compete for combined prize money of £40 million, were injected in their lips, nose and jaw in an attempt to make them more shapely to win cash prizes.

Camels were injected with Botox so they could win the contest (stock photo)

They were paraded at King Abdulaziz Camel Festival before judges discovered the deception. Featuring thousands of camels, the event also includes camel milk tasting and camel racing. The beauty contest judges the animals on their faces, even and well-placed humps, leathery mouths and muscular physiques.

Ali al-Mazrouei, son of a top Emirati breeder, said that Botox, the injectable toxin which is commonly used to erase wrinkles and plump lips and cheeks, was used on camels to make them more attractive.

He said: ‘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.’”

Camel owners were hoping to win cash prizes from the contest (stock photo)

Saudi Arabian media reported that a vet was caught in the act of giving plastic surgery to camels as well as Botox injections, such as reducing the size of their ears.

The festival is a huge event and is taken very seriously. Last year it was relocated from a remote desert area to north of the capital, Riyadh. The beauty contest portion of the show was first held in 2000 and the chief judge Fawzan al-Madi stated that camels were a ‘symbol of Saudi Arabia’.

He said: ‘We used to preserve it out of necessity, now we preserve it as a pastime.’

About the author

Alice Johnston

Food Editor

Alice is always planning her next meal. She studied English at the University of Bristol before getting her Master’s in newspaper journalism from City University London. She worked on Femail at Mail Online for 18 months writing about lifestyle and food and has also worked at Metro.co.uk, The Guardian, Mumsnet and The Sun. After starting at Culture Trip as a Social Content Producer writing travel and lifestyle stories, she was promoted to the role of Food Editor and now specialises in culinary culture, trends and social issues around food. When she’s not writing, eating or travelling, she can be found cooking overly elaborate dinners, reading cookbooks in bed or playing with her cat, Orlando. Her favourite foods include fishfinger sandwiches, burnt caramel panna cotta, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and oysters.