Thousands Of Japanese Fleeced Into Buying Designer Poodles That Were Actually Sheep

[UPDATE: It appears that this story is actually a hoax! Oops.]

JAPAN — Thousands of Japanese have been fleeced in a scam in which they thought they were buying expensive, designer poodles, when in reality they were actually sold sheep.

Flocks of sheep were imported to Japan and then sold by a company called Poodles as Pets, marketed as fashionable poodles, available at $1,200 each, which is about half of what the little yappers sell for there.

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.

“We launched an investigation after we were made aware that a company were selling sheep as poodles,” Japanese police said, the The Sun reported.

“Sadly we think there is more than one company operating in this way. The sheep are believed to have been imported from overseas – Britain, Australia.”

Many of the sheep have now been donated to zoos and farms.

JOKESTARTERS:

• That is one heckuva baa-aaad scam. BOING.
• In a related development, thousands of perverts were fleeced into thinking their inflatable sheep were actually women.
• Can you imagine being a movie star going on TV complaining about your designer poodle, only to find out it’s a sheep? I mean, how ignorant do you have to be to fall for this scam?

SOURCES:

• TheDenverChannel.com
• Snopes.com