- Cheating in a camel contest? That’s so low.
In beauty pageants, it’s nothing unusual for the contestants to get some plastic surgery. A nip there, a tuck there, some injection elsewhere…
That’s with human beauty contests anyway. But if you’re competing to be the most gorgeous camel, you’d better steer clear of cosmetics, or you face immediate disqualification.
That attitude was demonstrated at the 2026 Camel Beauty Show Festival in Oman. Upon inspecting the registered camels, judges discovered that nearly a dozen of them had received plastic surgery.
The cheating methods unscrupulous camel owners had employed ranged from Botox injections to anabolic steroids. Each of the doctored camels was immediately booted out of the contest.
The cheating attempts have caused a public scandal in Oman. Camel contests, whether racing or beauty, are serious business in the country due to their cultural and historical significance, together with their sky-high prize pools.
Sadly, it seems this year’s scandal in Oman is just part of a repeating pattern. In the past years, similar and even larger cheating busts have happened in other countries in the Middle East.
Man, is there any contest where someone isn’t trying to cheat?
Culture and Money
The 2026 Camel Beauty Show Festival was organized in February in the town of Al-Musannah, some 50 miles from the Omani capital of Muscat. You might chuckle at the thought of a camel beauty contest, but it’s a very important expression of Omani culture.
Oman’s people were traditionally part of nomadic Bedouin tribes, to whom camels were a lifeline. They’re vehicles, beasts of burden, and — in tough times — sources of food.
Really, it’s comparable to how pedigree horses (or the plumpest pig at the state fair) are venerated over here. The camel beauty pageant is just a way to appreciate a locally significant domestic animal and its contributions to human life.
Additionally, much like with horse competitions, there’s a lot of money in camel beauty pageants. Prize pools in the contests typically add up to dozens of millions of dollars.
Camel breeders trying to get a part of the pot invest a lot of cash and effort to rear first-grade camels with perfect looks. In the contests, the judges look for several criteria: a shiny coat with a distinct color, a long and wide neck, a large and smoothly contoured head, drooping lips, long eyelashes, and a shapely, full hump carried with impeccable posture.
Botox and Silicone
Unfortunately, some camel breeders are willing to resort to underhanded tactics to get ahead. This year, the judges in Oman busted 20 camel owners who had attempted to enhance their animals’ looks.
The methods to do so range far and wide. Some animals had received hyaluronic acid injections for pouty lips, while others had silicone fillers to shape their noses.
The breeders had used Botox injections to soften the hard edges and corners of the camels’ faces. Meanwhile, some of their humps almost had more silicone filler than natural fat.
Finally, there were those camels that were unnaturally fit and muscular. Sure enough, the judges discovered they had received hefty doses of hormones and steroids.
Each camel was immediately disqualified. Or, well, we should say the owners were, since it’s not the poor beasts’ fault they went under the scalpel.
“We are keen to halt all acts of tampering and deception in the beautification of camels,” the Oman Camel Club and the Coman Camel Racing Federation said, according to Forbes. They promised to enact “strict penalties on manipulators.”
Not only do the artificial beautification methods fly in the face of Omani cultural heritage, but they’re also harmful to the animals. The surgeries and injections are often done by less than scrupulous veterinarians and can lead to pain, swelling, infections, and even tissue death.
According to local reports, many of the camel-enhancing vets used to previously work on doctoring race horses. However, in recent years, they’ve started pivoting to the more lucrative camel business.
A Pattern of Cheating
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first or the largest Botox bust in the history of camel beauty pageants. In 2021, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz Camel Festival ended in an uproar after an even larger-scale cheating attempt.
More than 40 camels were ejected from the contest due to various beauty enhancements. At the time, honest camel breeders bemoaned the fact that there are no guidelines on how to fine or otherwise punish crooks in the business.
Indeed, even in Oman, there doesn’t seem to be any actual legal repercussions for cheating. However, it’s likely that getting caught cheating will tarnish a camel breeder’s reputation beyond recovery.
It might seem like a strange contest, but it should still be an honest contest.
Did you know that these days, racing camels are sometimes jockeyed by robots? It’s true! Check out robotic camel racing and others in our list of 9 of the strangest races from around the world.