The men who stare at goats

A Kuwaiti man paid SR30,000 (Dh29,500) in appreciation of her good looks after she beat all her rivals and won a beauty contest that attracted hundreds of fans.

A special committee picked the winner after a careful examination of her body and measuring of her horns, for she was not a woman but a goat.

Scores of goats from Saudi Arabia took part in the pageantry event in the northern town of Mujamma, the first of its kind to be held in the region, the Arabic language daily Aljazirah reported on Thursday.

More than 900 farmers and livestock collectors from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait were present at the one-day contest, which resulted in the sale of several male and female goats for around SR400,000 (Dh395,000).

“The best goat fetched SR30,000, the highest in the contest…it was bought by a Kuwaiti,” the paper said. “Because of is success, the organizers and the participants are considering holding this event in October every year.”

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf oil producers hold regular camel beauty contests but it was the first goat contest in the region.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s oil basin, has around 870,000 camels while there are nearly 378,000 camels in the UAE and 125,000 heads in Oman.

A small number of camels live in the other Gulf states of Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.

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