Ewe!!!
Got tipped to the following story here by Richard Cox and here by Mr. Pink. Thanks to both, but I must say that every brain cell of my keen analytical mind is screaming, “HOAX!!!”
Anyone know?
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.
I thought hoax too, but it says that some woman appeared on TV with her mystery pet. Haven’t found anyone who’s actually seen the programme in question though.
April 27th, 2007 at 10:56 amso some people got Fleeced neh??….(please I’m-a-Serious-Writer-Now…that was too easy!!).
April 27th, 2007 at 11:13 amI cannot believe people in this day and age can have the ‘wool pulled over their eyes’.
April 27th, 2007 at 11:27 amThis Japanese blog entry (from 4/18/07), says that the actress (Some of the stories say Kawamaki and some say Kawakami.)appeared on th show “Gokikenyou” and said she had heard that some people had searched online for toy poodles and bought sheep. I don’t see any other confirmation of this in Japanese news… there are a couple of other blog entries that say sort of the same thing. Wonder if the Western news picked it up and ran with it thinking it was factual… sounds urban legendy to me. No mention of these +2,000 people or a company name and why would they import the sheep into Hokkaido… there are sheep farms in Hokkaido. Makes it sound like the Japanese had to import something that isn’t ever found in Japan, but there are farms with sheep…
So it seems to be hearsay from an actress, who mentioned it on an afternoon tv show.
April 27th, 2007 at 11:38 amForgot the link:
April 27th, 2007 at 11:41 amhttp://pirikacoco.blog90.fc2.com/blog-entry-137.html
I’ve seen this in several places - it’s the exact same article, usually accompanied by stock photos of a poodle and/or a sheep. And I don’t buy the bit about “sheep are rare in Japan” and that peeps there wouldn’t know a sheep or a lamb if they saw one. Puleez. What about the kanji for “beautiful”? I call bs. I totally think it’s a joke. ^_^
April 27th, 2007 at 11:53 amand knowing how much the Japanese and (Koreans) just luuuuvve the smell of lamb - the mugs got ripped off twice!
April 27th, 2007 at 12:07 pmI would’ve just cooked it up for Sunday Lunch.
An adorable twist on the Mexican Chihuhua story!
April 27th, 2007 at 12:24 pmAnd no, it’s not at all believable, although I could see it possibly being a staged incident on a TV show.
Oo! Maiko Kawakami, the babe in Big Bird Goes to Japan!
April 27th, 2007 at 1:01 pmI was just going to post this! I can’t believe it!
April 27th, 2007 at 1:15 pmSnopes says it’s false. LOL!
April 27th, 2007 at 8:15 pm[...] JAPAN - Likely hoax story on poodles in sheep’s clothing “Thousands of Japanese have been swindled in a scam in which they were sold Australian and British sheep and told they were poodles.” by myrick @ 9:19 pm. Filed under Uncategorized [link] [...]
April 27th, 2007 at 10:22 pmThese reporters even called the cops in Sapporo about it. Needless to say, they’d never heard of the story… .
http://au.news.yahoo.com/070427/23/1398y.html
April 28th, 2007 at 12:14 amNo-one would seriously credit this?.
Do you guys know how hard it is to get legitimate sheep into Japan, even frozen ones? pre-chopped ones, as it were?.
Good joke though .
April 28th, 2007 at 9:07 am“Good joke though..screamingly hilarious Tigger..where-is-the-PUN (?)….:lol:
April 28th, 2007 at 9:22 amyou must from N.Z. (Trigger) ? …it’s pretty easy to import pre-loved Japanese BMW’s in there..and then on-sell.
April 28th, 2007 at 9:37 amI am UTTERLY disprited that my “lamb - chop(ped)” pun escaped you there above. It is right there, and not hidden inside even a tiny spring of fanciful writing, let alone a flight.
You are right, we have no trouble sending BMWs and such machinery ( we sell them some hundreds of special electric motors a month, for one thing ) across the water between New Zealand and Japan. The raw material for lamb sandwitches however, is subject to very strong regulation and tariff, I am certain that absolutely no live animals come from Japan, it has foot and mouth, Glassy Sharpshooters and rabies. I am also fairly certain a Japanese company couldn’t just send away for live sheep, without massive paper work, and “end user” certificates.
Maybe this doesn’t occur to people hearing this hoax, because most people don’t know nothing about farming, eh?.
( Extends hand of friendship to the fish -E )
April 28th, 2007 at 1:06 pmThis is my favorite line:
One couple said they became suspicious when they took their “dog” to have its claws trimmed and were told it had hooves.
April 30th, 2007 at 3:47 am