A dog crowned the “world’s oldest” hound has had his title stripped by the Guinness World Records (GWR), after officials declared there was not sufficient proof to the claim.
Bobi the Portuguese mastiff was allegedly 31 and five months old when he died in October, which would have been the equivalent to 220 years old in Canine years.
His age surpassed the previous record holder Bluey, an Australian dog who died in 1939 at the age of 29 years and five months.
Just eight months before Bobi passed away, GWR declared him the world’s oldest living dog and the oldest dog since records began.
However, in a new statement, GWR said it “no longer has the evidence it needs to support Bobi’s claim as the record holder”.
His owners claimed that he was 31 years and five months old when he died
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Shortly after Bobi was named the world’s oldest dog, suspicions began to emerge that it was not biologically possible for him to live that long, while genetic testing failed to establish his precise age.
In December, an investigative article from Wired re-sparked the speculation over Bobi’s real age with information about official records coming to light.
Despite his age being registered on Portugal’s national pet database, this was based on the owners’ self-certification, while a picture of Bobi from the 1990s appeared to show him with different coloured paws.
“This is the equivalent of a human living to over 200 years old which, given our current medical capabilities, is completely implausible,” Danny Chambers, a vet and council member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, said.
“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and no concrete evidence has been provided to prove his age.”
According to his owners, Bobi had been born on a farm in the village of Conqueiros on 11 May 1992, when his owner Leonel Costa was just eight years old.
Bobi’s family had previously credited his lengthy lifespan to his unusual diet of human food, which was soaked in water to remove any seasoning.
He was a purebred Rafeiro do Alentejo, a breed of Portuguese dog that has an average life expectancy of around 10 to 14 years.
