Posted on 04/26/2007 10:46:30 AM PDT by Fractal Trader
A Japanese actress inadvertantly blew the lid off a scam which had duped thousands of women into buying coiffured sheep in the belief they were poodles, the Evening Standard reports.
Maiko Kawakami appeared on a TV talk show with snaps of her pet, and admitted she wondered why it "didn't bark and refused to eat dog food". She was soon set straight - her dog was in fact a sheep.
The revelation provoked a stream of women to contact the cops with "similar problems". The powers that be reckon that as many as 2,000 have fallen victim to the audacious ovine poodle con, perpetrated by internet company "Poodles as Pets", which offered the animals at £630 a pop.
A police spokesman told The Sun: "We launched an investigation after we were made aware that a company was selling sheep as poodles. Sadly, we think there is more than one company operating in this way. The sheep are believed to have been imported from overseas - Britain and Australia."
In case you're wondering how on God's Green Earth you could mistake a sheep for a dog, the Standard explains that poodles are "extremely rare in Japan, with many people having little idea what they look like". No, we're not convinced either.
(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.co.uk ...
True story. My grandmother had a collie mix out on her farm. Some gentleman gave her a very young sheep with a lame rear leg. Following the collie around it grew up thinking it was a dog. It herded the cows when they got out. It chased cars. It even bleated out what was supposed to be a bark.
One of the more bizzare things I ever saw was two wild dogs come prancing up to it thinking they were in for an easy meal, turn and run for their lives when the sheep turned and charged them.
On FR several months ago someone posted pix of a small horse/pony foal who was being “raised” by a Labrador. It was the cutest thing!
Wonder what ever happened with that....
OK, now I'm confused.
Ah, thank you for the information.
Oh my....
PING!!!
Ya beat me!
Now that has to be one of the most original and innovative of scams I have ever heard. I give it a 9.6 on the Olympic scam scale.
I find it difficult to believe that this makes economic sense. Sheep have one or two lambs at a time, and you need room to raise sheep. Poodles have litters of 7-10 at a time and can clearly be raised in much less space. I’m not advocating it, but it’s done regularly here in the US.
This story makes zero sense.
susie
Does this mean that Japan has a certain number of “honorary” blondes?
Mutton to worry about here.
Japanese version of Cheryl Crowe.
At 630 pounds ($1260) that is not cheap poodle or sheap poodle or sheep poodle. Anyway, this is one dog one will have no problems eating.
And without separating the sheep from the goats . . .
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