This story appeared today in the Sydney Herald, the Metro, and the Register.

From the Herald:

Flocks of sheep were marketed as fashionable accessories -- available at $1600 each -- by a company called Poodles as Pets.

A real poodle retails for twice that much in Japan.

The scam was uncovered when Japanese film 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 a sheep.

That's funny, but believable. After all, we have Jessica Simpson here in the US. Then the story goes on:

Hundreds of other women got in touch with police to say they feared their new "poodle" was also a sheep.

Now, I’m no journalist, but every once in a while I pretend to be, nonsensical as that concept is. I’ve been pwned enough times to be skeptical of a story that has everything an internet humorist could ask for. It didn’t take long for this story to be featured on hundreds of blogs and websites.

The forums had a field day with the puns.

wolf in sheeps clothing
sheepdog
ewe gotta be kidding
lamb chops
ram-ifications
they got fleeced
pull the wool over their eyes
mail order bride
lamb poon
and the visual puns

Amongst the puns, the folks at Metafilter were on the case, scouring the internet for confirmation or repudiation of the story. Turns out there is no mention of this story in the Japanese press today. None. This blog post with a very similar story turned up, but it is dated February of 2006. A recent Japanese blog post referred to Maiko Kawakami (the correct spelling of the actress in the newspaper story) passing along the story on TV as a rumor she’d heard. And that may be the seed of what grew into this story.

So don’t believe everything you hear, especially if it’s that good. As much attention as this is getting, there will be a followup in the press in a day or two. That said, I have throughly enjoyed the puns!

Friday morning update: Nine MSN in Australia says, yes, it's a hoax.

Update two: Snopes is on it.