

Begging is a tough, but potentially profitable business, you just have to find the right sales pitch. Beggars in China have happened upon perhaps the most horrifying sales pitch by bringing along mutilated camels to elicit more sympathy and money.



Recently, a number of online pictures have exposed this practice. According to Tencent, beggars have been spotted employing these unfortunate camels throughout China, kneeling down alongside them and begging for money.



The most recent images of two beggars exploiting an injured camel come from Fuzhou. Shanghai Daily reports that when police arrived to find the camel laying by the roadside and investigated, they found the camel had no hooves and wounds that indicated they had been deliberately cut.

An article from Fuzhou News in April reported that the pair makes hundreds of RMB in just a couple hours for practicing this kind of cruelty.



The wild camel is one of the most endangered large mammals on the planet, and supposedly strictly protected by the Chinese government. There are only around 600 left in the Gobi Desert of northwest China, and 800 in the deserts of Mongolia. Check out The Wild Camel Protection Foundation to learn more.

by Alex Linder