The Sydney Morning Herald reports: Thousands of Japanese have been swindled in a scam in which they were sold Australian and British sheep and told they were poodles. Flocks of sheep were imported to Japan and then sold by a company called Poodles as Pets, marketed as fashionable accessories, available at $1,600 each. That is a snip compared to a real poodle which retails for twice that much in Japan. The scam was uncovered when Japanese moviestar Maiko Kawamaki went on a talk-show and wondered why her new pet would not bark or eat dog food. She was crestfallen when told it was a sheep. Then hundreds of other women got in touch with police to say they feared their new "poodle" was also a sheep. One couple said they became suspicious when they took their "dog" to have its claws trimmed and were told it had hooves. Japanese police believe there could be 2,000 people affected by the scam, which operated in Sapporo and capitalized on the fact that sheep are rare in Japan, so many do not know what they look like. WOW. Just wow. Are Japanese people that sheltered? http://www.neatorama.com/2007/04/26/baaaad-investment/
Please tell me this is a hoax. You take your "poodle" to get its claws trimmed and you never realized it had hooves?
I bet that's nothing compared to the tourists that go to Thailand and find out their prostitute is a tranny.
Reportedly <a href="showthread.php?p=67278#post67278">Roy D. Elton</a> made out like a bandit in this deal.
Those idiots... BTW, my dog is growing a shell and only eats lettuce of all things...what's wrong w/ him?
The SMH got the story from AP. Though it looks like the story originated from the UK tabloid The Sun http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007190295,00.html
I woulldn't put a lot of STOCK into this story. People in Japan do know what a sheep looks like, they have TVs and TV programs, and the popular type of poodle is a miniature poodle, not a standard poodle. (size constraints)
