“Without any conclusive evidence available to us right now, we simply can’t retain Bobi as the record holder and honestly claim to maintain the high standards we set ourselves,” Mark McKinley, Guinness’s data director, said in the statement, somewhat greater than a month after the organization opened “a formal review” into Bobi’s age.
Bobi, having lived his complete life in Leiria, Portugal, was a Rafeiro do Alentejo, a breed that usually guards livestock and lives between 12 and 14 years. The earlier Guinness document holder for oldest canine was Bluey, an Australian cattle canine that lived 29 years and 5 months earlier than dying in 1939. The new document prompted news stories around the globe.
Guinness wrote about Bobi once more in May to commemorate his alleged 31st birthday. The organization wrote an obituary of types when Bobi died in October, claiming that the canine had lived for 31 years and 165 days.
Questions surrounding Bobi’s age emerged quickly after his loss of life. In October, English veterinarian Danny Chambers, a council member for the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, told the Guardian that none of his colleagues believed Bobi was truly 31. He advised the British newspaper that smaller breeds are usually the one dogs that reside into their late teenagers.
“Bobi’s reported age is equivalent to a human living over 200 years, which, given our current understanding of the aging process and medical capabilities, appears highly implausible,” Chambers wrote in an op-ed for the Skeptic, a nonprofit journal that analyzes “extraordinary claims” of bizarre phenomena.
In December, Wired reported {that a} Portuguese authorities pet database had data of Bobi’s proprietor registering him, however didn’t have proof that the canine was born in 1992.
In January, Guinness introduced that it was conducting the review of Bobi’s title.
In a statement to the BBC on the time, Bobi’s proprietor, Leonel Costa, defended his late canine’s award, calling suspicions round his age “unfounded.”
“An elite within the veterinary world … tried to give people the idea that Bobi’s life story was not true,” Costa mentioned within the assertion.
In an announcement to The Washington Post, Chambers mentioned final month that he felt for Costa, however that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and so far no concrete evidence has been supplied.”
On Thursday, Guinness mentioned that it agreed — there wasn’t proof Bobi had lived so long as Costa claimed. In an effort to confirm Bobi’s age for the unique document, Guinness mentioned it had relied on a microchip implanted by a Portuguese veterinary service and pet database approved by the nationwide authorities. But that organization, the Sistema de Informação de Animais de Companhia, didn’t confirm Bobi’s date of beginning when he obtained the microchip in 2022, McKinley mentioned in an announcement.
When Guinness announced a yr in the past that Bobi had secured the document of oldest canine ever, it quoted Costa as saying that Bobi was by no means purported to reside past a number of days. The puppy and his littermates had been born in 1992, based on what Costa advised Guinness on the time, on his household farm in Portugal in a building the place they saved wooden. Costa’s father euthanized the puppies after deciding that they already owned too many animals.
Unnoticed, Bobi escaped. He was quickly found by Costa, who was 8 on the time, based on Guinness. He and his brothers stored him a secret from their dad and mom at first. Over time, Bobi grew to become a part of the household and wandered the farm, chowed on folks meals and customarily loved a “calm peaceful environment … far from the cities” — all of which his proprietor credited for his lengthy life.
McKinley mentioned within the assertion that Guinness had not selected a brand new titleholder.
“We certainly hope that the publicity around the record title encourages pet owners from around the world to get in touch,” McKinley added.
Chambers, the veterinarian, mentioned that possibly someday medical advances will enable dogs to routinely reside to 31. For now, he mentioned, a canine’s high quality of life is extra vital than longevity.
“Dogs have no ambition to live a long time, they simply want to be happy and healthy on a day-to-day basis and enjoy the company of their owners,” he wrote in an electronic mail Friday.
