A warning supposedly found on all microwaves ... somewhere.
"Did you hear about the woman who sued the microwave manufacturers after she killed her dog?

You see, there was this old lady who had a little dog, a poodle or something. It was her only companion, and she used to take it for walks and bath it regularly. She developed a routine. First she'd wash it, then towel-dry it, then put it in her electric oven on the lowest power for 5 minutes. She reckoned this gave her dog the best, smoothest coat.

Anyway, she gets given a microwave oven by her daughter. One day while drying her dog she looks at the microwave and thinks "It's quick, it heats stuff up, I'll use it instead of the oven". She puts the microwave on low power and puts the dog in.

Now the thing about microwaves is that they don't work like ovens, but heat water molecules directly. While the old lady went to put on the kettle, the little dog exploded.

Naturally the woman's upset about this, but rather than buy a new dog she decides to sue the manufacturer for insufficient warnings. After all, how was she supposed to know that it wasn't safe for the dog? She wins her case, and gets awarded like three million dollars for her distress.

That's why all microwaves in the USA now carry the warning "Do not put pets in the microwave to dry them".

True story".

This is a particularly persistent urban legend, and one which keeps re-inventing itself. I was originally told this story as an example of insane American litigation. However, that part was tacked on much later

This story seems to have first occurred in 1976, and has been cropping up ever since then. It even found its way into the 1991 film "The Willies". The animal in question is sometimes a cat, sometimes a dog. The old lady is a pretty permanent fixture. The animal doesn't explode in every version of the story; sometimes it just dies.

It's a lie. There are no genuine recorded cases of people accidentally microwaving their pets. On purpose, sure. People will do pretty much anything cruel. But either nobody has accidentally killed their pet, or nobody wants to own up to it.

Incidentally, the story becomes a bit more credible with the legal action bit, as above. A good reason to admit the stupidity would be to fight a court case. But alas, there has been no such case.

finally, the acid test; the proof that the legend of the poodle in the microwave is untrue:

Search your microwave oven and its documentation for the phrase "Do not put pets in the microwave to dry them".

Did you find it?

I thought not

sources:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/legends/bl-poodle.htm
http://198.64.129.160/horrors/techno/micropet.htm

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