Beauty contests are a positively massive industry worldwide, and despite some very heated outcry over their nature recently, they still rake in money, viewers, and sponsorships like few other events that aren't professional sports can.
All over the world men and women alike (but mostly women) compete against one another through displays of talent, beauty, and intelligence in elaborate pageants, with the winner ultimately being crowned as the most beautiful, and often going on to do paid advertisements and appearances. Children can even get in on the action nowadays, which is an entirely different conversation (especially considering this practice has landed some participants in jail).
Of course, pageants like this can get pretty competitive, and as a result there are more than several instances of contestants doing ANYTHING in their power to win, including breaking the rules in big ways. Whether it's altering their looks in ways that are against the competition, or even straight-up interfering with the other contestants, it can be a pretty cutthroat world.
As it turns out, even animals aren't exempt from this, as when a beauty contest for camels was held in Saudi Arabia, many of the entrants had to be disqualified for the illegal use of cosmetic surgery...
According to Arabian Business, "A dozen beasts have been disqualified from this year's Saudi 'camel beauty contest' because their handlers used Botox to make them more handsome." Yes, you read that right: there are camel beauty contests, and the people who enter them are so competitive as to Botox their camels.
"The camel," explains competition judge Fawzan al-Madi "is a symbol of Saudi Arabia. We used to preserve it out of necessity, now we preserve it as a pastime."
As the country tries to move away from the oil industry that's defined it for so long, things have been changing and plenty of new sources of revenue are being considered. As such, the country has amped up its annual, month-long camel festival to include all sorts of new events, including the aforementioned beauty contest.
