I’ve discovered another hole in my education:  Camel racing. So, I thought I’d share my new info with those of you attending:

The dromedary is the camel used in camel racing. In fact, the dromedary’s name comes from the Greek verb dramein, which means “to run.” Many camels are specially raised for racing. They train on treadmills and in swimming pools.  If that isn’t a sight, there’s always ostrich racing. Camel racing is serious business abroad in Kenya, Sudan, Egypt, India, and Australia—but particularly in the Arab countries of the Middle East.  

CRUELTY TO CHILDREN  –  Beyond the fact that all races involving animals carry a certain element of cruelty, camel racing has a particularly notorious legacy of recruiting young boys, in some cases children abducted and trafficked from destitute villages in South Asia, to be jockeys.  Children are often favored as jockeys because of their light weight, and in order to maximize the camels’ speed they often will fast for days at a time prior to each race.^[5] It has been reported that thousands of children (some reported as young as 2 years old) are trafficked usually from countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Pakistan, and Sudan for use as jockeys in Arab States of the Persian Gulf.^[6] In 2005, aid workers estimated a range of 5,000 – 40,000 child camel jockeys in the Persian Gulf region.^[7][8]