Thousands of Japanese have been swindled in a scam in which they were sold sheep and told they were poodles. Seriously. The scam was uncovered when Japanese movie star Maiko Kawamaki went on a talk-show and wondered why her new pet would not bark or eat dog food (bwahahaha!). She was crestfallen when told it was a sheep. Shortly afterwards, hundreds of other women got in touch with police to say they feared their new 'poodle' was also a sheep.

It seems flocks of sheep were imported to Japan and then sold by a company called 'Poodles as Pets' which marketed them as fashionable accessories, available at $1,600 each. That price is cheap compared to a real poodle which retails for twice that much in Japan. Of course the question that immediately springs to my mind is, if you're going to spend that much money on a dog, wouldn't you want to find out what it actually looks like first?

One couple said they became suspicious when they took their 'dog' to have its claws trimmed and were told it had hooves (bwahahaha!). 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.

Ok people, just to clear things up, click the image above.

Source: NineMSN Australia, April 27, 2007.