Camel Doping

Camel Doping

AbdulRahman Al-Nuaimi

Camel racing in Qatar is serious business, and some camel owners go to extreme lengths to win. More than 2,000 camel owners in Qatar were caught doping their racing camels in the past six months.

“These are numbers of the people who got caught. There are many of them pass the test,” Shabeeb bin Arar, an official from the Qatar Ministry of Youth and Sports, said of camel owners who drug their camels.

Camel racing is one of the most important sports in Qatar. For centuries, people have taken pride in owning fast camels. Through poetry and other forms of Arabic literature, many writers have expressed a love for camels.

There are many competitions with valuable rewards organized for camel racing. The rewards include luxurious brand-new cars, such as Mercedes-MayBach, Range Rover and Bentley. Moreover, the amount of cash prizes range from $5,000 to $1,500,000.

Camel owners use many kinds of corticosteroids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory substances to dope their camels. There are three types of doping: liniments, oral drugs and injections.

Liniments are used to increase the blood supply to the target organ. They are applied on the outside of the camel’s body.

For injection, camel owners use the drug dexamethasone. “We inject the camel in the vein to increase its performance. The amount we inject depends on the camel’s age,” Mohammed Khalid Al-Kaabi, a 25-year-old camel-racing owner, said.

“There are 1,164 substances that are banned. The most used is Dexamethasone,” Saleh Bin Omair, a member of the Hejen Racing Committee, said.

Dexamethasone increases a liver’s enzymes, and its use can lead to liver failure. “Livers are similar to brains, if they are harmed they are extremely hard to treat,” Dr. Mohammed Ali, a veterinarian specializing in treatment of camels, said.

Not all doping substances are used to enhance the camel’s performance. Some drugs, like ammonium chloride and furosemide, are used to treat some legitimate conditions.

“Many of the substances banned are actually used to treat the camel and not dope it. We cannot let the camel die,” Dr. Mahmoud Helmi, a veterinarian, said. He, like Dr. Ali, has treated doped camels.

Blood transfusions immediately before races are a recent form of doping. Camel owners who do this take 10 liters of blood from one camel and inject it into another before a race to increase the oxygen level, a procedure that is very dangerous.

“Imagine filling a plastic bag with water, than adding more water. The plastic bag will explode, and the same thing happens with the heart of the camel,” Dr. Helmi explained. Blood transfusion can cause allergies, liver malfunction and heart failure.

Recentlycamel owners have beenmixing cocktails of medicine, which are also risky to the camel’s liver.

Camel owners also use medication to enable camels to pass tests taken after a race.

Owners use several tactics to avoid getting caught. “I personally never got caught doping the camel. I dope before the race by 14 days and give medications that increase the blood volume, which makes it hard for the steroids to show in the tests,” Khalid bin Sowayan, a 28-year-old camel racing owner, said.

Camel owners also administer diuretics, which make a camel urinate more prior to racing, in order to cause the camel to lose weight and to flush out banned substances.

After a race, the racing committee keeps the camels at racetracks for 24 hours and tests the camel’s urine. If a camel has been doped, the owner is required to pay 50,000 Qatari riyals ($13,751) and the camel is banned from racing for a year.

Camel owners argue that doping is more about perfecting the camel than changing it. Contrary to what many people might think, they say, doping a camel does not necessarily make the camel go from the 10^th place to 1^st place, but more likely changes a result from 10^th to 9^th.  They say that the camels are very strong, that camels can handle a lot of pain and that, only on rare occasions, doping causes a camel to die.

 

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