“Without any conclusive evidence now available to us, we simply cannot retain Bobby as the record holder and honestly claim that we are maintaining the high standards we set for ourselves,” Mark McKinley, director of Guinness World Records, said in the statement. More than a month after the organization opened an “official review” of Bobby’s age.
Bobby, who lived his whole life in Leiria, Portugal, was a Raveiro do Alentejo, a breed that usually guards livestock and lives between 12 and 14 years. The previous Guinness World Record holder for the largest dog was Blueie, an Australian cattle dog who lived 29 years and five months before dying in 1939. The new record sparked news stories around the world.
Guinness wrote about Bobby again last May to celebrate his alleged 31st birthday. The organization wrote an obituary of sorts when Bobby died in October, claiming the dog lived for 31 years and 165 days.
Questions surrounding Bobby's age emerged shortly after his death. In October, English vet Danny Chambers, a member of the Council of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, told The Guardian that none of his colleagues believed Bobby was actually 31 years old. He told the British newspaper that smaller breeds are usually the only dogs that live in their homes. Late teenage years.
“Bobby’s reported lifespan is equivalent to a human lifespan of more than 200 years, which seems highly implausible, given our current understanding of the aging process and medical capabilities,” Chambers wrote in an op-ed for Skeptic, a non-profit journal that analyzes the study. “Unusual claims” of unusual phenomena.
In December, Wired reported that the Portuguese government's pet database contained records of Bobby's owner registration, but had no proof that the dog was born in 1992.
In January, Guinness announced it was reviewing Bobby's title.
In a statement to the BBC at the time, Bobby's owner, Lionel Costa, defended his late dog's award, describing doubts about his age as “unfounded”.
“The elite in the veterinary world… tried to give people the idea that Bobby’s life story was not true,” Costa said in the statement.
In a statement to the Washington Post, Chambers said last month that he felt for Costa, but that “extraordinary allegations require extraordinary evidence, and so far no concrete evidence has been provided.”
On Thursday, Guinness said it agreed – there is no evidence that Bobby lived as long as Costa claimed. In an attempt to verify Bobby's age for the original record, Guinness said it relied on a microchip implanted by a Portuguese veterinary service and a pet database licensed by the national government. But that organization, Compania Animal Information System, did not verify Bobby's birth date when he received the microchip in 2022, McKinley said in a statement.
When Guinness announced a year ago that Bobby had held the record for the largest dog ever, it quoted Costa as saying that Bobby was not supposed to live more than a few days. The puppy and his companions were born in 1992, according to what Costa told Guinness at the time, on his family’s farm in Portugal in a building where they store wood. Costa's father euthanized the puppies after deciding they already had too many animals.
Without being noticed, Bobby escaped. He was soon discovered by Costa, who was 8 years old at the time, according to Guinness. He and his siblings hid it from their parents at first. Over time, Bobby became part of the family and roamed the farm, eating people's food, and generally enjoying a “quiet, peaceful environment… away from the cities” — all of which his owner credited for his long life.
McKinley said in the statement that Guinness has not made a decision on the new title holder.
“We certainly hope the publicity around the record title will encourage pet owners from all over the world to get in touch,” McKinley added.
Perhaps one day medical advances will allow dogs to routinely live to age 31, said Chambers, the veterinarian. Right now, a dog's quality of life is more important than longevity, he said.
“Dogs have no ambition to live a long time, they simply want to be happy and healthy on a daily basis and enjoy the company of their owners,” he wrote in an email on Friday.
