Portugal: Bobi, the world’s oldest dog, has had his crown stripped due to a controversy surrounding his true age. Guinness World Records (GWR) officials removed the once record-breaking dog from his position after determining there was no proof he was as old as his owners claimed.
GWR noted in their statement that, “It had concluded it no longer has the evidence it needs to support Bobi’s claim as the record holder.”
When Bobi died in October, eight months after GWR named him the world’s oldest living dog and the oldest canine in history, he was 31 years and five months old. An Australian cattle dog named Bluey held the previous record in 1939 at the age of 29 years and five months.
After Bobi was crowned as the oldest living dog, veterinary experts raised questions about the possibility of a dog living that long. Some online photographs of Bobi, taken in 1999, indicated that he had different coloured paws compared to the dog that died in Portugal last year.
There were sceptics who argued that although his age was recorded in Portugal’s national pet database, it was based on self-certified information provided by owners, and that pet microchipping only became widespread in 2008.
Following Bobi’s death, Danny Chambers, a council member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and a vet, disputed the claims that the dog had lived for more than three decades. Chambers stated that, “Of the 18,000 members of the Veterinary Voices group he runs, not a single one of his colleagues believed Bobi was actually 31 years old.”
“This is the equivalent of a human living to be over 200 years old which, given our current medical capabilities, is completely implausible. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and no concrete evidence has been provided to prove his age,” he added.
According to reports, there were no documents in the Portuguese database that could confirm or deny the owner’s claim that Bobi was born in 1992. His owner, Lionel Costa, did not respond to Wired’s inquiries.
In announcing Bobi’s removal from the records, Mark McKinley of GWR, who reviewed the entry, noted that, “We take tremendous pride in ensuring as best we can the accuracy and integrity of all our record titles. Following concerns raised by vets and other experts, both privately as well as within public commentary, and the findings of investigations conducted by some media outlets, we felt it important to open a review into Bobi’s record.”
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