Guinness World Records has suspended the title that recognized the Portuguese dog Bobi as the oldest in the world, while that recognition is being investigated due to suspicions about the real age of the canine, it was announced today.
According to the European online edition of the English newspaper The Guardian, two titles awarded to Bobi in February 2023 have been suspended: the oldest living dog in the world and the oldest dog of all time.
According to the publication, a spokeswoman for Guinness World Records confirmed today that Bobi’s two titles have been withdrawn, pending the outcome of the ongoing investigation.
“While our review is underway, we have decided to temporarily pause both of the oldest living dog record titles and only until our findings are in place,” stated the Guinness source.
The Guardian recalled that when the Alentejo mutt died at the age of 31 years and five months in October last year, the “tributes were quickly followed by scrutiny and suspicions about his record age”, equivalent to more than 200 years in humans.
Veterinarian Danny Chambres, a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the UK institution that regulates veterinary surgeons and represents 18,000 professionals, told the newspaper that none of his veterinary colleagues believe that Bobi was actually 31 when he died.
Also according to the English newspaper, some observers noticed that the images of Bobi in 1999, seven years after the date indicated as his birth (1992), “showed that he had different colored paws from those of the dog that died in Portugal on October 21, 2023”.
On the other hand, veterinarians pointed out that although the dog’s age was recorded in the Portuguese pet database “such entries were generally based on the owners’ self-certification”.
“And then there was the genetic test, which confirmed that he was old, but didn’t give a precise age,” says the Guardian, which also cites a “totally serious” journalistic investigation into the case by US technology magazine Wired.
