Saudi Arabia hosts meeting on camel protection

Specialists from several countries gathered in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to discuss new animal care regulations for camels, a “prized and valued” animal, particularly in Gulf Arab states.

Experts from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Sudan, the United States, and Germany compared scientific and technical notes on curbing effects of cosmetic surgery on camels and defined the tampering concept in the sector.

“The International Camel Organization recently put a focus on camels, not just in Saudi Arabia, but around the world,” Valeri Crenshaw, secretary-general of the North American Camel Ranch Owners Association, told i24NEWS.

“They set out some goals for camels, and the overarching one was animal welfare, to make sure that… these prized and valued animals are being treated as they should be,” Crenshaw said.

Beauty pageants in Qatar, camel racing in Saudi Arabia, camel wrestling in Turkey, tourist attractions in the United States – a camel’s worth is increasing worldwide. 

With that in mind, the conference in Riyadh aimed to result in a set of recommendations to be adopted as rules for countries interested in the camel sector. 

For its part, the veterinary committee of the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival – a major annual event in the Saudi kingdom – highlighted measures to expose and tackle malpractices in dealing with camels, including cosmetic procedures for camel beauty pageants, according to Gulf News.

“In competitions, people try to get ahead, and the prizes at these competitions, especially in these Middle Eastern countries, are lucrative,” Crenshaw said to i24NEWS.

“With athletes in the US, we have anti-doping rules. We are just translating that to animals. We don’t want somebody to… compromise the animal’s health but also the integrity of the competition.”