Japanese get the woll pulled over their eyes...

[Heathenpeddler]

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.

Read the full story here...
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=263297

 

[big_daddy_merc]

i know i shouldn't laugh at others being scamed, but that is funny , surely someone should have said something earlier in the scam, not everybody could have been fooled

 

[sxmolloy]

i know i shouldn't laugh at others being scamed, but that is funny , surely someone should have said something earlier in the scam, not everybody could have been fooled

I know what you mean

 

[Dougster]

Surely to God someone must have noticed the Bah's and the penchant for grass!

Safe cats!

 

[Tengu]

Ah, these foreign dogs with their funny ways!

(Remember the strange laughing, cat licking, creature of `Goodbye my Lady`?)

We must remember that very few japanese have ever seen either a sheep or a poodle outside of a picture.

 

[gregorach]

Oh dear, turns out that it's not actually true... What a surprise!

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=263447

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.

...

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.

...

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.

The moral of the story? Don't believe everything you read in the papers - they'll print any old rubbish and lie about having checked it.

 

[weekend_warrior]

We must remember that very few japanese have ever seen either a sheep or a poodle outside of a picture.

Not quite so, there are quite a few sheep farms in Japan - even in 1923 there were over 10,000 sheep there, despite the small size of the islands and they are generally well educated, intelligent people.

 

[Eric_Methven]

Even if it is an urban ledgend, I still got a good laugh out of it.
Reminds me of the Japanese dapartment store that wanted to do a Christmas theme. They ended up with a big display in the main foyer - Santa Claus nailed to a cross. Methinks they didn't quite get it!

Eric

 

[Jedadiah]

Even if it is an urban ledgend, I still got a good laugh out of it.
Reminds me of the Japanese dapartment store that wanted to do a Christmas theme. They ended up with a big display in the main foyer - Santa Claus nailed to a cross. Methinks they didn't quite get it!

Eric

 

[Rebel]

The story is good for a laugh but it sounds like the type of tosh I'd expect from the Sun or the Daily Sport.

I lived in Japan and I find it highly unlikely that even the most urban of city slickers would mistake a sheep for a poodle when presented with one. They are generally better educated and more knowledgeable than many of our own younger generation. Sheep are not that unusual in Japan nor is their education so lacking that they haven't at least seen pictures of them in books.