The oil-rich Gulf states are crazy about races of every kind — be they atop horses, cars, sandstorming ATVs or, yes, camels. 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. Human-rights investigators found evidence of young Bangladeshi boys in the United Arab Emirates being kept in near slavelike conditions and given meager amounts of food so they would be as light as possible for upcoming tournaments. Camels are unpredictable, cagey creatures at the best of times, and they tend to not respond kindly to being whipped by little waifs strapped between their humps. Numerous child jockeys have died during races. In 2005, the U.A.E. government bowed to international pressure and banned child jockeys from competing — new robot jockeys have been introduced in some instances. But an Amnesty International investigation found children still employed as jockeys in races as recently as 2010.