"Thousands of Japanese people have apparently been scammed into buying 'poodles' that are actually sheep with fancy haircuts."

But the scam was only spotted after a leading Japanese actress said her 'poodle' didn't bark and refused to eat dog food.

Maiko Kawakami, who starred in the Japanese thriller Violent Cop, showed photographs of her pet on a television talk show only to be told it wasn't a dog -- but was in fact a lamb.

(Via Boing Boing.)