Was Bobi the World’s Oldest Dog—or a Fraud?

“It is true that I am considered an expert on dog coat color,” Sheila Schmutz, an emeritus professor of animal and poultry science at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, informed me. “At least in terms of genetics.” I despatched Schmutz, who has revealed a number of papers about the coats of canines and cattle, a choice of pictures of Bobi taken in 1999, 2016, and 2022, and requested her whether or not the pictures gave the impression to be of the similar canine.

Schmutz wasn’t positive. In a few pictures Bobi’s fur gave the impression to be pink, whereas in one other it appeared like he had a brown coat. Brown and pink coats, Schmutz assured me, are two very totally different colours. “I had my husband look at the photo set too and he agrees that we can understand why people don’t think it’s the same dog in all the photos, but it’s not absolutely clear to us,” she wrote. “Wish this were more clearcut …” she signed off her e mail.

For certainty, I must look elsewhere, and so I turned to Karen Becker, a veterinarian and creator of The Forever Dog: Surprising New Science to Help Your Canine Companion Live Younger, Healthier, and Longer. In a number of articles, Becker was credited as the one who broke the information of Bobi’s dying, in a publish on her Facebook web page. I despatched Becker a message via her web site and waited for a response.

Becker, it turned out, was away lecturing, however I did get a response from her administrative assistant, Dana Adams, who was not impressed with the Guardian article casting doubt on Bobi’s longevity. “So much is incorrect,” Adams wrote. “Bobi never ate raw food, he only ate homemade cooked food, he’s a mutt not a purebred, and the lobby organization waited until the poor little guy’s cremation day to raise questions to Guinness about additional testing.”

Wait—what? A foyer group? It was true that the GWR article about Bobi, and many the subsequent press protection, had picked up on the element that Bobi solely ate “human food,” a issue that Bobi’s proprietor, Leonel Costa, cited as a cause for his canine’s uncommon longevity. (Costa didn’t reply to WIRED’s requests for remark.) But Adams’ reference to a foyer group appeared to be suggesting that there have been darkish forces behind these doubts. I pressed her for extra particulars.

“Well, those of us in the pet space know it never goes well when you threaten a multi-billion dollar empire,” Adams wrote to me. “The Guardian article made it clear this is about the concerns vets have if people do what Leonel did and feed a home-cooked diet … Bobi directly threatens this entire industry.” Attached was a screenshot of the world’s high 10 pet meals producers, as ranked by petfoodindustry.com. Topping the checklist had been Mars Petcare Inc., Nestlé Purina PetCare, and Hill’s Pet Nutrition.