Posted on 04/26/2007 1:32:13 PM PDT by Hyzenthlay
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 capitalised 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.ninemsn.com.au ...
Not only is there a sucker born every minute but there is also a dumb@$$ born every minute.
P.T. Barnum would be very proud...
oops, sorry everyone, the first two times I went through the thread I didn’t notice it was already posted somewhere, unless it was posted while I was making this one... so there’s another thread like this at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1824056/posts
Looks like there's some Libs who moved to Japan after the last Presidential election.
This HAS to be a joke, right?
This one is for you!
Guess I wasn't paying close enough attention...for some reason.
I’m actually afraid that this might turn out to be true. God knows there are few enough people in Japan who own real dogs (thanks to the expense) - it might actually be possible that the average Joe/Jane Sakebottle might /not/ recognize a fake dog when he/she sees one.
On second thoughts, I guess they are domesticated. I meant to say house broken. Can sheep be house broken?
This has got to be some sort of joke. Can anyone really be this galactically stupid?
Aparently the Japanese are clueless to the virtues of barbeque as well.
They’re idiots.
Many islamist have asked their imams that question.
Errrr..... which one of us is "you"?
OMG, is this a joke? They don’t know sheep from poodle?
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