A video of a camel being loaded with bags of heavy stones has surfaced from Pakistan, attracting criticism from animal rights organisations.

According to a Daily Mail report, the video is from an annual contest in Pakistan where camels are loaded with stones and then made to stand up. The camel lifting the maximum load wins. The competition is watched by crowds that may go up to 20,000 in number.

This year’s contest was won by twenty-year-old Qasim Hussain from Bradford, West Yorkshire in England, with his four-year-old camel Sheezada Kathreela, who lifted a load of 1.7 tonnes.

“Camels are intelligent, sensitive individuals, and treating them as living cranes for human amusement adds to the many types of abuse, including their eventual slaughter,” Elisa Allen, director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals was quoted as saying in the report.