Dead dog no longer credited as world’s oldest following Guinness investigation

An investigation by Guinness World Records has determined a dog in Portugal that died last October was not the oldest dog ever on record. 

Bobi, a dog that had belonged to Leonel Costa of Conqueiros, Portugal, had been declared the oldest dog alive and the oldest dog ever in February 2023 before dying, allegedly at age 31.

Purportedly born on May 11, 1992, Bobi had outlasted Bluey, an Australian cattle dog that had lived from 1910 to 1939.

Bobi was registered with a Portuguese national pet database in 2022 as having been born in 1992, key to his initial case for holding the age record.

But when Bobi was microchipped for the national database, authorities did not require proof of his age, as he was purportedly born before 2008.

“Central to Bobi’s evidence was microchip data sourced from the Portuguese government database … With the additional veterinary statement provided as evidence for Bobi’s age also citing this microchip data, we’re left with no conclusive evidence which can definitively prove Bobi’s date of birth,” Guinness World Records explained in a release Thursday.

An official with the Portuguese database, Eurico Cabral, told Wired in December 2023, “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.” 

Mr. Costa previously called questions over the legitimacy of Bobi’s record “unfounded,” according to the BBC.

Experts who doubted Bobi’s age said that a dog living that long would be akin to a person living for two centuries.

“This is the equivalent of a human living to over 200 years old which, given our current medical capabilities, is completely implausible. … no concrete evidence has been provided to prove his age,” veterinarian Danny Chambers with the U.K.’s Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons told the Guardian.