I’m not here to objectify camels, just to tell you the news, so let’s get on with it.
Reuters reported on Monday that a dozen camels were disqualified from an annual Saudi “camel beauty contest” taking place just outside of Riyadh after their handlers gave them Botox to make them look more attractive for judging.
The head judge, Fawzan al-Madi told Reuters, “the camel is a symbol of Saudi Arabia. We used to preserve it out of necessity, now we preserve it as a pastime.” But that instinct to preserve apparently stops short of using Botox.
The festival during which the camel show takes place is reportedly more lavish than ever this year, and the pressure is on to turn out a truly stunning camel.
The Reuters report did not specify the preferred injection site for the Botox. In the camels’ faces seems right, but in the humps would be no less absurd.
I reserve all my judgement for humans and their awesome capacity for spending money on dumb shit, especially anything that will make them seem superior to the next person, even if that thing is a surprisingly hot camel.