Following the death of Bobi, said to be the world’s oldest dog according to the Guinness World Records, an investigation has been launched to verify and confirm that the beloved pup actually was in his 30s.
While one might think that the death of someone or a beloved pet would garner sympathy and support from others, that’s not necessarily true in the world we live in. And apparently, there has been questions raised about the authenticity of Bobi’s age. Of course, those questions come from a number of veterinarians, who doubt the story of Bobi and his life.
According to The Guardian, following the recent death of Bobi,
"awe soon turned into scepticism, as vets wondered whether it was biologically possible for a dog to live for the equivalent of 200 human years.Now, the Guinness World Records has said it is investigating whether the claim the Portuguese mastiff lived to 31 years and 165 days is genuine."
Guinness World Records is investigating to determine if Bobi really was 31 at the time of his death
Essentially, veterinarians have been raising questions about whether or not this dog really was 31 years old at the time of his death, because they find it hard to believe that a dog could live to be what is basically 200 years old in human years. Their doubts are now leading to an investigation, in part because of scrutiny related to pictures of the dog from 1999. It seems as if there may be some inconsistencies between what the dog looked like at time of death and those pictures from 1999.
Although his date of birth was registered, when a pet is registered, that is something done by the person who owns them. So that is something that the veterinarians are using as a way to point out that this is a self certified age for the dog, and not necessarily true. On top of that, although they did genetic testing to determine the age of the dog, all they could determine was that he was very old.
Honestly, it’s highly doubtful that they will truly be able to confirm Bobi’s age. And it is sad that, instead of being able to mourn the dog that he just lost, Bobi’s owner is now being asked questions to confirm his dog was in fact 31 years old at the time of his death.
You would think that all of this would have been confirmed at the time that the dog was certified by Guinness World Records as being the world’s oldest dog. Why wait until the dog had died to actually start this type of investigation? It would make a lot more sense for them to have done all of this confirmation prior to the dog’s death and prior to actually giving him the title of world’s oldest dog.
We can’t wait to see how this particular investigation unfolds. And we really hope that Bobi’s owner is able to find peace following the death of his dog.