http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2305310/Man-gets-shock-life-buys-toy-poodles-150-told-vet-actually-GIANT-RATS-pumped-steroids-look-like-dogs.html

Beware buying pets over t'internet

Oh dear - a fool and his money are easily parted!

While I think it is horrid that somebody would treat the ferrets this was (pumping them full of steroids to make them so big) - how is it possible to mistake these ferrets for puppies?????

I was told by a ferret enthusiast that they aren't common in Brazil, plus they would be the long coated variety, so quite possibly people didn't know what they were.

I'm disappointed they're described as rats though!  The newspaper can surely do better than that... they aren't rodents at all.

It is the DM Sue, what else can you expect from the world leader in misinformation and prejudice .

Reports on tv some time go of idiots buying piglets believing them to be Kune Kune.
Several months later and many kg heavier, poor owners had to rehome their commercial meat pigs.

> I was told by a ferret enthusiast that they aren't common in Brazil, plus they would be the long coated variety, so quite possibly people didn't know what they were.

In all honesty, I would not have known it was a ferret - I wouldn't have a clue as to what it actually was without being told - but still could tell what it wasn't. I think it looks much more like a cat than a dog (the whiskers are cat-like), but still not even enough like a cat to be fooled into buying one as a cat.

The saddest part is not the fact the people have been duped, it's the fact it's possible to dupe a prospective dog owner into buying the wrong species. If a person can't even tell when an animal is NOT a dog, are they really going to know even the basics about responsible ownership? :(

I guesse they never saw the 'pup' with it's mother!

> I guesse they never saw the 'pup' with it's mother!

lol!

Lol, I'm pretty sceptical about this story. Surely it would take more effort to bulk up a ferret with steroids than to just breed some poodles? It's not like poodles are very rare, it just seems it would take more effort to buy drugs get them into a ferret over a course of time and then groom it to look like a poodle. Plus dark eyed whites are like hens teeth, most white ferrets are albinos.
I think it's a Brazilian April fools the Daily Mail have picked up thinking its real.

Mmmm Pookin.  Says a lot for the Daily Mail?

Lol :)