Hoax Museum Blog: Animals

Rent a Pet — FlexPetz is a San Diego-based company that allows people to rent out dogs by the day. So if you want to be able to take a dog to the beach on the weekend, but you don't have time to care for it during the week, this is the service for you. Marlena Cervantes, the founder of the company, doesn't like the term "rent-a-pet," according to this AP article. Instead, she likes to think of what she's offering as "shared pet ownership." The service is quite pricey, but it's doubtless cheaper than caring for a dog yourself for its entire life.

As soon as I read about this company, I thought about the many "rent-a-something" type hoaxes that have been reported here over the years, such as: Rent my Son, Rent a Wife, Rent a Negro, Rent a Midget, Rent a German, and Rent a Dildo.

However, I'm pretty sure FlexPetz is not a hoax. Though many might think that it's such a bad idea they would prefer it was a hoax.

My first reaction was to be appalled. Pets, to my way of thinking, are part of the family. They're not something to be rented on the weekend. But the more I've thought about it, the more I've started to grudgingly accept the idea of this company, because if you want a pet but you're not sure if you can take care of it for its entire life, renting one would be better than buying one and later trying to get rid of it. (via Art of the Prank)

The Coleman Frog — The Coleman Frog, explains a recent article on Canada.com, is an enormous stuffed frog -- it weighs 19 kilograms, or about 42 lbs -- on display in the York-Sunbury Museum in Fredericton, Canada. According to legend, the frog originally belonged to Fred Coleman, who owned a lodge near Fredericton back in the 1880s. He used to feed it whiskey and whey, causing it to grow to its enormous size. After it died, he had it stuffed. It sat in the saloon of a hotel for a while before coming into the possession of the York-Sunbury Museum.

There are skeptics who say that the Coleman Frog is a fake. They suggest that the frog was actually originally a display item used to advertise a cough medicine guaranteed to relieve "the frog in your throat" (See Canada's Mysterious Maritimes), but the York-Sunbury Museum dismisses such skepticism. Tim Andrew, a local expert on the frog who defends its reality, says, "I don't suppose we'll ever put the controversy to rest. It was suggested doing DNA testing on it, but I think we're reluctant to disturb the peace of a stuffed beast that's been around quite happily for 123 years now." (Thanks, Joe)

Eclyse the Zorse — Big Gary forwarded me a link to this Yahoo News Photo of Eclyse, a zebra-horse hybrid housed at the Stukenbrock Safaripark in Germany. Big Gary had some doubts about whether this was a true hybrid, or a fake one (such as Tijuana Zebras -- donkeys that Tijuana street vendors paint to look like zebras so that tourists can pose with them). Eclyse's color coating does look so strange that it would be natural to assume it was fake, but it turns out to be real. Spiegel has more pictures of Eclyse.

Eclyse's coloring is highly unusual, even for a zebra-horse hybrid. The Wikipedia entry on Zebroids speculates that she got her patchy coat because her mother was "piebald or skewbald (known in the USA as a Pinto horse)."

Oscar, the death-predicting cat — The latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (Volume 357, Number 4) contains a short article about Oscar, a cat that seems to possess the ability to predict when people are about to die. Oscar's home is the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, so he has many chances to be around dying people. When patients are about to die, he curls up next to them and happily sleeps there, until they're dead. Then he quietly exits the room. Most of the time the dying patients are so sick they don't even know he's there. The article in the NEJM states: Oscar is a cute cat, but my first thought was whether Oscar could somehow be causing or hastening the deaths of the patients, though I can't imagine how this could be. An Associated Press article raises some other possibilities: Normally I'm happy if a cat curls up with me, but in Oscar's case, I would be a little concerned. (Thanks, Big Gary)

Kangahippopossumouse — An anonymous correspondent emailed me a link to Arr, the Kraken, where I found this picture of a very curious creature. Arr, the Kraken speculates that it might be a kangahippopossumouse. Perhaps, though it could also be a Tasmanian Dwarf Hippo. Anyone out there able to positively identify this thing?

Yet another urban myth from Iraq — On the heels of the "American troops eat babies" myth comes the story of the Giant, Man-eating Badgers of Basra:

Ferocious British badgers an urban myth in Iraq

Best of the Forum – 15th June 07 —
Artist fools punters into buying tins of cheap plaster… (David B.)
Tins of Italian artist Piero Manzoni’s excrement, sold as art to collectors for thousands of pounds, have been in the news recently, as it seems that they may contain nothing more than plaster.
A spokeswoman at the Tate museum in London insisted that the revelation did not invalidate the tin as a work of art.
“Keeping the viewer in suspense is part of the work’s subversive humour,” she said.
The world’s most famous photos (Beasjt’s number is 669)
This website displays a collection of what they say are the world’s most famous photographs. There has been some debate amongst the forum members as to which photos should be included.

Chatline for dolphin (Madmouse)
A dolphin raised by a deaf mother is having problems learning vocalisations. So a chatline has been rigged up at her Florida home so that she can communicate with dolphins in a nearby lagoon.

Ninja Power vs. the Old Dude of Doom!!! (Accipiter)
A ninja who targeted isolated Italian farms whilst wielding a bow and a knife was captured on Monday, after an elderly farmer confronted him with a rifle. The ninja was arrested, following his escape by bicycle, when the police pursued him to an abandoned farmhouse. He turned out to be Igor Vaclavic, a former soldier from the Russian army.

Quick Links: Dog Gives Birth to Kitten, etc. —
Dog Gives Birth to Kitten
A dog in a Chinese village has allegedly given birth to a litter that included what looks like a kitten.
“Local residents have been flocking to his house to see the 'kitten' which local vets say is really a puppy which looks like a cat because of a gene mutation. It apparently yaps like a puppy.”
Whether or not the photo that accompanies the article is actually a picture of the litter is uncertain.
(Thanks, Sarah.)

Is Des a Feline Record Breaker?
Des, a cat belonging to Alison Thomas of South Wales, boasts an impressive 26 toes. Polydactylism is not uncommon in felines, and there are reports of cats with 24 toes, but Mrs Thomas is trying to find out whether 26 may be a new UK record. Unconfirmed reports from North America mention cats with 28 toes.
(Thanks, Beasjt.)

Octopig
It has been reported that a pig in Croatia has been born with six legs and two penises. As Sarah pointed out in her email, the ‘Octopig’ should more accurately be called ‘Hexapig’.

Best of the Forum – 8th June 07 —
Man blames health drink for unwanted erection (Bebelicious)
New Yorker Christopher Woods underwent surgery in 2004 for severe priapism – an erection that would not subside. Now he’s suing pharmaceutical company Novartis AG, claiming that their nutritional drink, Boost Plus, was the cause of his condition.

Can’t remember the name of a song? Try tapping it on your keyboard! (DJ_Canada)
This programme allows you to tap the melody of a song using your space bar to try to identify it. Results appear to be user-submitted, so they're a little hit and miss. No pun intended.

Yahoo’s list of sunscreen myths (Dily)
A Yahoo writer, Leslie Baumann, M.D., has posted a short list of common mistakes people make when considering protection from the sun.

Woman arrested for making faces at a dog (Slender Loris)
Charges have been dropped against Jayna Hutchinson from Lebanon after she was arrested for "staring at [the police dog] in a taunting/harassing manner."

The Ashera Cat — Want to own a leopard? That probably wouldn't be legal, but for $22,000 you can have the next best thing. A company called Lifestyle Pets is selling what it claims is a cross between an African Serval, an Asian Leopard Cat and a domestic cat. So it's like a smaller, tamer version of a leopard. They call this cat an Ashera. Their product page says, "Fully socialized, the Ashera gets along well with children and other pets and unusually for cats, the Ashera takes well to being walked on a leash."

At first when I saw the Lifestyle Pets website, I thought it was some kind of elaborate hoax in the vein of GenPets. But the Ashera seems to be real. At least, it's being widely reported in the news. And these cats look big! (Well, big for cats.) I don't think any other cats in the neighborhood would mess with them. Not many dogs would either, I would bet. It would look pretty cool walking one of these cats around the neighborhood, but for $22,000 they're a bit out of my price range.

The Return of Hogzilla — Quite a few people have emailed me about this. An eleven-year-old Alabama boy claims to have killed a wild hog that's even bigger than Hogzilla. Hogzilla weighed 800lbs and measured 8-feet. Hogzilla II apparently weighs 1050lbs and measures 9-feet-4. Since Hogzilla turned out to be real, I'm a little hesitant to be skeptical of Hogzilla II. After all, hogs can get big. The boy's father has created a website, monsterpig.com, about the hog.

The fact that the boy is fairly small, being only eleven-years-old, may exaggerate the hog's size in the photo, but I wouldn't call this an intentional attempt to deceive. Overall my hunch is that this is not a hoax.

Best of the Forum – 25th May 07 — As some people receive Museum updates via RSS feed, or just don't frequent the forum, we have decided to round up some of the most interesting threads each week for all to see.

Rabbit-Headed Cat (Smerk)
Two carcasses discovered in 1988 and 1993 are thought to be a new species – rabbit-headed wildcats. These Kellas cats seem to be rare, and investigators are urging landowners and gamekeepers to help them discover more. Sadly, the rabbit-like ears aren’t as impressive as I’d hoped.

Get your free virus now! (Accipiter)
“Is your PC virus-free? Get it infected here!”
409 people decided to click the text advertisement that Finnish IT security expert Didier Stevens had placed on Google’s Adword. Stevens’s experiment was aiming to show that such advertisements could be used with malicious intent. There was, of course, no virus.

June 6, Théopolis World Contact with Aliens (Antoll MA)
On June 6th, the annual gathering to officially ask the alien gods to visit will take place in Théopolis.

Boost Car Remote With Your Skull (Tah)
This video (not suitable for work, due to the type of adverts on the site) demonstrates how, by placing your car remote under your chin and opening your mouth, you can boost the range of the remote. Apparently it uses your oral cavity to amplify the signal. The video doesn’t actually show the remote being used at the same time as showing the car react, so it could be faked. There’s really no way of telling. A couple of forum members have tried it, with mixed results.

Tims Don’t Look Like Bobs (Tah)
A new study reveals that the more a person ‘resembles’ their name, the more likely it is that others will remember it.

Chinese Winged Cat — Ananova reports a case of a cat in China that has grown wings. The owner of the cat, Granny Feng, says, ""At first, they were just two bumps, but they started to grow quickly, and after a month there were two wings."

Ananova isn't the most reliable of sources, but I don't see any reason to doubt this story. Winged cats are a rare, but entirely possible phenomena. I could have sworn they'd been covered on the MoH before, but apparently not (at least I can't find any mention of them after doing a search).

Messybeast.com offers the best discussion of winged cats, explaining that the "wings" are typically mats of fur, or the result of either a congenital deformity or a skin condition. (Thanks, Kathy)

Urban Parrot Phenomena — Is it true that large flocks of wild parrots can be found in cities such as Los Angeles, New York, and San Diego? When I first heard this I doubted it, since I live in San Diego and I've never seen wild parrots flying around (though I've seen plenty of other strange birds in my backyard.) But apparently parrots are adapting very well to urban environments, and many can now be found living wild in cities throughout the world. It's called Urban Parrot Phenomena. (Actually, I don't know if it's widely referred to as that, but I like the term.)

An article from the IPS News Agency discusses San Diego's urban parrots and their possible origins: Roelant Jonker and Grace Innemee are Dutch biologists who have been studying the phenomena of urban parrots for a while and have a lot of info about the subject on their website, cityparrots.org. You can also view a short clip that Channel 10 news here in San Diego did about the city's parrots. My wife told me that the parrots here in San Diego speak with a Mexican accent, but I think she was pulling my leg.

Quick Links: Fake Zebras, etc. —
Fake Zebras
A zoo in China is charging a small fee for posing beside horses painted with zebra stripes. The zoo assures the customers that it is 'just for fun'.

Dressed Up Dead Fawn Left By Theatre
"The police log entry said it all: "Deceased fawn was dressed up like an infant and abandoned at the Pantages Theater."
The police have no idea who left the fawn or why, but they believe that the fawn had been stillborn and had died some time previously.

Woman Pretends to be Pregnant - Wastes Police Time
A Rhode Island woman has been given probation for a year after claiming her boyfriend had taken their child. Several months previously, Roxann Lacey falsely told her boyfriend that she was pregnant.
At the beginning of this month, she contacted the police, telling them that she had given birth at home, but her boyfriend had taken the child after an argument.
Medical examination found that she had not given birth, and she pleaded no contest to filing a false police report.

The Great Goldfish Hoax — It began with a classified ad in the Fresno Bee: "Found: Large, obese goldfish. Approx 11yrs old, blind as a bat." The ad, placed by Lori Igasan, ran for a week, starting March 16, and soon attracted a lot of attention, especially after David Letterman talked about it on his show.

Igasan explained to reporters that she had just walked out of her house one day, when she happened to notice a large goldfish lying on her front lawn. Immediately she ran inside to place it in an aquarium with her pet turtle. She decided to place the ad in the paper in order to find the rightful owner of the fish.

A few weeks later another Fresno woman, Bernadette Planting, identified the goldfish as her own, Charley, who had recently gone missing from her above-ground pool. A local aquatics saleswoman speculated that the fish was picked up from the pool by a large bird and dropped 1.3 miles away on Igasan's lawn.

Lori Igasan and the goldfish

The Fresno Bee reported the happy reunion of Planting and Charley on May 9. A day later, after numerous readers called in identifying Igasan and Planting as long-time friends, The Bee admitted it had fallen for a hoax.

The two women confessed to the hoax, saying, "It was not our intention to hurt anybody." Apparently it all started when Igasan, the real owner of the fish, placed the unusual ad in the paper as a way to get rid of her unwanted goldfish. When the ad then attracted so much attention, Igasan talked her friend Planting into coming forward as the owner.

The executive editor of the Fresno Bee said, "We're disappointed that these ladies weren't honest, and disappointed that we didn't catch the hoax." The Bee is running a poll of its readers about the hoax. Currently, 44% think that the women should have told the truth, and only 8% think it was harmless fun. Seems like a harmless joke to me. (Thanks, Joe)

Quick Links: Jesus on Google Maps, etc. —
Jesus on Google Maps
Brian Martin claims that he saw the shape of Jesus in the clouds above Mount Sinai.
(Thanks, Madmouse.)

Cat Gives Birth to 'Puppy'
Following on from the Japanese poodle scam hoax, this made me laugh.
A cat in Zhengzhou, China has supposedly given birth to a litter of four, one of which looks like a poodle. There are no pictures to accompany the article, however.
(Thanks, Robert.)

Sexism in Tetris
It seems a lot of people didn't realise the April 1st post on this computer site was a joke.
(Thanks, ponygirl.)

Japanese Poodle Scam Revealed as Hoax — The Japanese poodle scam - wherein thousands of gullible buyers were sold lambs instead of the dogs they were expecting - was first reported in UK Sun newspaper. The story went that rich women were buying cut-price poodles from a company named Poodles For Pets, and were astonished to find later that they were sheep.

The story itself was immediately dubious (aside from being in The Sun, which tends to be somewhat lax in the fact-checking department), when you consider snippets like:


The story unravelled when police in Sapporo, where the company was claimed to be based, said they had never heard of the scam. The talk-show story was not as it seemed, either. It appears that Kawakami had told a story about a lamb being sold instead of a poodle. However, she'd said that it had happened to a friend of hers.

It seems that nobody had heard of the scam - it hadn't been reported in any Japanese newspapers.

The final nail in the coffin? The original article claims that the scam "capitalised on the fact that sheep are rare in Japan, so many do not know what they look like."
In fact, Sapporo has had a sheep farm since 1848.

Forum thread here.

Quick Links: Peace Bomb and Fake Snakes — Peace Bomb
Colin Barnett thought a good way to promote his art might be to place one of his vases outside the National Gallery of Victoria with the phrase "Peace Bomb" written on it. The police disagreed, and now Barnett is spending three months behind bars. I guess his publicity stunt backfired.

Fake Snakes
"Austrian officials fed up with motorists stopping to urinate by the roadside have put up fake snake warnings to scare them into using toilets... Of course there are no snakes but they don’t know that." So what happens when the Austrian authorities really want to warn people about snakes? No one will believe them.

Taiwan Hostage Hoax
Two Taiwanese MPs reported that students had been taken hostage at National Taiwan University. The police arrive, only to discover it was all a hoax. the MPs just wanted to test the police response time.

White Peacock — It may look like something out of a fairytale, but it's definitely real. Plus, it's a pretty cool photo. Here's a different picture of a white peacock on Wikipedia. (via Reality Carnival)