Some folks got fleeced by fake poodle scam!

[Mouse_Maven]

Link. (http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=46730&in_page_id=34)

I hope this is a joke. If not, I'll feel much smarter.

By the by, has anyone herd from Hal? :D :D



(As a newbie, I apologize to the much cooler Doper. Forgive me, the temptation was to great.)

[Slypork]

Link. (http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=46730&in_page_id=34)

I hope this is a joke. If not, I'll feel much smarter.

By the by, has anyone herd from Hal? :D :D



(As a newbie, I apologize to the much cooler Doper. Forgive me, the temptation was to great.)That’s OK, the joke wasn’t too baaad. Wooly, it wasn’t. I’m feeling a little sheepish here. I better take it on the lamb now before ewe ram your fist down my throat.

[Mouse_Maven]

To err is human, to a fraud - ovine.

:D Oh, I'm going to hell, alright. Where do the bad puns sit?

[Sunspace]

That's quite a yarn, MM. I can't believe that anyone, let alone thousands of people, would be so stewepid. It's as baaaad as that Chihuahua/rat story, butt that at least was an urban legend.

[Gary "Wombat" Robson]

Thinking of 2,000 people not realizing dogs don't have hooves makes me chuckle.

[eleanorigby]

It has me wondering what is in the basic books about farm animals and pets in Japan!


And then there IS the internet--a thing quite popular in Japan, when last I checked....

:confused:

[Miss Mapp]

In British novels from the 1920s and '30s, I sometimes run across the term "poodle-fakers" or "poodle-faking." Now I know what it means... :)

[Celyn]

Bah. Nothing wrong with it. Haven't you heard of sheepdogs? :D


Really, though, I *do* hope this is just a joke or a myth. Even if people cannot somehow see any difference between a poodle and a little sheeplet, I really hate to think of these lambs being offered the wrong food and so on. Not good.

[StGermain]

I can't imagine that it's real. After all, wouldn't all these starving lambs being taken to vets be a clue?

StG

[Beware of Doug]

I recall a James Thurber piece from the 1930s in which someone wrote to a (fictitious) plant expert about the "Uruguayan Whooping Fig," and got the reply that it was actually a dead rabbit. The Uruguayan government had a surplus of dead rabbits it was trying to unload.

[cher3]

I'm having a really hard time believing this. Hungry lambs may not bark, but they sure make a helluva lot of noise. And two thousand grown women with money to burn who've never seen a picture of a poodle or a sheep?

[Swallowed My Cellphone]

Really, though, I *do* hope this is just a joke or a myth. Even if people cannot somehow see any difference between a poodle and a little sheeplet, I really hate to think of these lambs being offered the wrong food and so on. Not good.That what I thought when I first saw the story on Fark. I pictured poor lambs dying from malnutrition because morons were trying to give them dog food.

ETA: And as Cher mentioned just above me, I find it hard to believe that anyone could have a hungry lamb going "BaaaaaaaaaaH" and be asking "Why doesn't my dog bark?" (As per the article I read.) I think it's a news hoax.

[CaerieD]

I'm having a really hard time believing this. Hungry lambs may not bark, but they sure make a helluva lot of noise. And two thousand grown women with money to burn who've never seen a picture of a poodle or a sheep?

Not to mention the fact that Japan has dog breeds (http://japanesedogs.bulldoginformation.com/) of its own. It's not like this is a completely foreign species. I don't know how common poodle breeds are to Japan, but dogs are common enough.

[Beware of Doug]

Not to mention the fact that Japan has dog breeds (http://japanesedogs.bulldoginformation.com/) of its own. It's not like this is a completely foreign species. I don't know how common poodle breeds are to Japan, but dogs are common enough.Maybe there aren't a lot of sheep.

[CaerieD]

Maybe there aren't a lot of sheep.

:smack:

Well, they apparently don't have a lot of them, but if they celebrate the Year of the Sheep (http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa012903.htm) I'm betting they've got pictures.

[Beware of Doug]

Baa humbug.

[Mouse_Maven]

That's quite a yarn, MM. I can't believe that anyone, let alone thousands of people, would be so stewepid. It's as baaaad as that Chihuahua/rat story, butt that at least was an urban legend.

Here ewe have it: Looks like mutton instead of mutts is anurban legend (http://www.neatorama.com/2007/04/26/baaaad-investment/)

I hope they lambaste the guy that pulled the wool over our eyes!

[Sublight]

Maybe there aren't a lot of sheep.
According to the book Wild Sheep Chase, this is true.

[Mangetout]

Sounds like a variation of the Mexican Pet (http://www.snopes.com/critters/lurkers/mexicanpet.asp) UL.

[Cowboy8467]

Sounds like a variation of the Mexican Pet (http://www.snopes.com/critters/lurkers/mexicanpet.asp) UL.


Indeed, Snopes has tackled (http://www.snopes.com/critters/lurkers/poodlesheep.asp) this very thing. It's a fake

[blinkingblinking]

I find it all very racist. The papers here have all reported it. The Herald-sun now says that 'Kill-joy bloggers have called it a hoax'.
Shouldn't they have said 'we cannot be bothered with fact-checking'.
I knew there was something wrong when I realised they could not even spell the actress' name correctly.

[blinkingblinking]

Killjoy bloggers say yarn is just an urban myth (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21630801-13762,00.html?from=public_rss)

'But just who was fleeced – confused Japanese pet-lovers or gullible Westerners?

The author of English-language Japanese blog Cerebral Soup argues that the story is an urban myth which last did the rounds in February 2006. '

Their paper's website reported it as news. No apology to readers.

[Little Nemo]

On a related story, does anyone else think these lamb chops taste funny?

[Sleel]

Here's a link to the Cerebral Soup! (http://www.souzouzone.jp/blog/2007/04/media_flock_to.php) entry on it. Another link to a blog with some slightly different (http://www.stippy.com/only-in-japan/maiko-kawakami-and-many-japanese-women-mistake-lambs-for-poodles/) information. Kawakami's online diary (http://www.anan.ne.jp/kawakami/pages/diary/2007/index.htm) where she asks people who have bought sheep that they thought were dogs to contact her, gives her phone number too. Not sure how good of an idea that was.

Stuff almost this weird does actually happen in Japan, but this time it was a hoax.