The Guinness World Records have temporarily suspended their “world’s oldest dog” title amid claims that the current title holder was not as old as its owners claimed it was.
When Bobi passed away, an entry on the Guinness World Records website explained that he had lived to be 31 years 165 days old. While not a ripe old age in human terms, you don’t find many dog millennials, and this prompted a few raised eyebrows from Internet investigators.
On Reddit, a few posts on the Dogs subreddit questioned whether a dog could live that long, with some users citing the previous title holder only being an estimated 23 years and 7 days old. Several claimed that they had unearthed earlier photos of Bobi, and that the photos showed a different dog with white paws.
Vets had questions too. Danny Chambers of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons told The Guardian that none of his colleagues believed the dog could be that old.
“This is the equivalent of a human living to over 200 years old which, given our current medical capabilities, is completely implausible,” Chambers added. “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and no concrete evidence has been provided to prove his age.”
Wired dug into the matter some more. Bobi’s age had been verified by the Portuguese SIAC pet registration program, according to the Guinness World Records, but when Wired contacted the SIAC they replied that “at the time, the animal’s holder declared that it had been born in 1992, but we have no registration or data that can confirm or deny this statement.”
Vets spoken to by Wired also had questions about how an overweight dog lived to such an age (217 in dog years).
Guinness World Records were already aware of questions about Bobi and had launched their own investigation. On Tuesday, they confirmed that Bobi’s title of World’s oldest dog had been taken away temporarily while that continues.
“While our review is ongoing we have decided to temporarily pause both the record titles for oldest dog living and ever,” a spokesperson said, per The Guardian. “Just until all of our findings are in place.”
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