The following was in this morning's newspaper!

Wool Pulled Over Petlovers' Eyes!

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 sold by a company called Poodles as Pets, which marketed the woolly animals as fashionable accessories available at $1600 each. That price is a snip compared to a real poodle which retails for twice that much in Japan.

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. She was crestfallen when told it was actually a sheep.

Hundreds of other women then 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.

Police believe there could be 2000 people affected by the scam which operated in Sapporo and capitalised on the fact that sheep were rare in Japan, so many do not know what they look like.

End of story!


It's not 1 April is it?

Marc: Have you seen anything about this?