Eid Means Big Business - and Criticism - for Egypt's Camel Traders

Opening day at Cairo’s Birqash camel market. In the pre-dawn hours, a boy – stick in hand – keeps camels in place for the start of a busy trading day.

Resting up before the frenzy ahead of the feast. After a trek on foot from as far away as Sudan, camel traders spend the night near the camel pens as they prepare for a busy day of trading.

A trader takes his herd of camels into the market, hopes an early start will mean good sales. Expectations this year have been tempered by higher prices caused by a dropping Egyptian pound. Currency fluctuations are a factor, since many of the animals come from outside Egypt.

Some camels arrive on foot, while others are trucked in. Animal welfare activists say the journey is no easier for those who arrive on trucks. The startled animals are sometimes beaten when they hesitate to climb on or off the vehicles.

Selling sticks to beat the camels is a business that thrives on the sidelines of the market.

Other businesses like selling knives and slaughtering tools set up alongside the camel trading business at the Birqash market.

Mohamed Abdoul-Aal, an animal trader who usually deals in cows and bulls, has turned to the camel business. “Camel trading now is much better than trading in cows and bulls, since many of them are suffering from foot and mouth disease this year.”

Mohamed Omar El-Batlan brings camels from Sudan. “The Egyptian authorities won’t allow us to take them on trucks after we cross the border. We have to take them on foot for more than 150 kilometers from the Egypt-Sudan border,” he said. “These 150 kilometers’ costs time and food for the camels and the camels get exhausted.”

There are incentives for treating animals well, says Soliman, a Sudanese camel herder. “We keep camels from getting injuries or marks,” he said. “They fetch a higher price.”

Herders beat an untamed camel, causing it to bleed. Egyptian animal welfare groups have protested practices at the Birqash market that they say include.

A camel bleeds after it is beaten for hesitating. Many of the animals, raised in the desert, resist and sometimes attack their herders.

A dead camel on the side of the road leading to the market. Some animals succumb after the arduous journey.