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Saturday, May 05, 2007

"Mary-san had a ritter ramb desu ne..."








O'right little children, gather around and I'll show you a nice little picture...


Now, who can tell me what kind of animal is this?





What did you say? A what?...



27 April 2007 (AAP) Tokyo -- Thousands of Japanese have been swindled in a scam in which they were sold Australian and British sheep and told they were poodles, The Sun newspaper reported today.

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 (Mary-san desu) went on a talk-show and wondered why her new pet would not bark or eat dog food.

She was dumbfounded 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.



Now you know.



Oh look! A black sheep!



****





6 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Damn! That was stupid!! hahaha!! I can't help but laugh my heart out.HAHAHAHA!

Misterhubs said...

What a bunch of idiots.

Line Thamawat said...

I don't get it.. how could they not tell it was a lamb?

Erique Fat Owl said...

Are they SERIOUS?? Does living in a super rich and modern city deprive their ability to tell what animal is what????

Anonymous said...

It's understandable really.

misutero yubosu no baka. they're not even 12. baka.

Nico said...

thanks for making my day. this is definitely the type of news i would read. i didn't know sheep are rare in japan. who knew!!! i love their innocent reaction too: taking 'poodle' to get claws trimmed only to find out it has hooves.

still, scammers should be prosecuted. its not cool to fool others.

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