Police in Japan have denied knowledge of a scam where rich Japanese women who wanted a poodle as a pet were deceived into buying sheep.
English newspaper The Sun reported that Australian sheep had been sold to rich women as poodles by a company in Sapporo, Japan.
The story has since been reported internationally by newspapers and websites in the UK, America, New Zealand and South Africa.
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The newspaper said a police spokesman in Japan had confirmed the company, called "Poodles As Pets", had been shut down.
But a public relations spokesman for Hokkaido police, whose jurisdiction includes Sapporo, said he had not heard of the scam.
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A Tokyo-based entertainment and culture reporter said she had not heard of the story. The story had not been reported in any Japanese newspapers, she said.
The Sun reported that because sheep were rare in Japan, people there were not able to distinguish between a sheep and a poodle.
But sheep have been bred in Sapporo for many years. In 1848, an American farmer named Edwin Dun came to Sapporo to set up a sheep farm.