Guinness World Records (GWR) have decided to review their process for accepting applicants for the title of world’s oldest dog.
After the death of Bobi, supposedly the oldest dog in the world, controversy surrounded the legitimacy of this claim. GWR have suspended his title, and are making it significantly harder to prove that applicant’s dogs are as old as they claim.
Bobi provisionally had his title suspended in January, but following recent reviews, GWR announced last week that the title has been permanently stripped, on the basis that they no longer have the evidence it requires to support the claims.
The decision to review the title came after WIRED launched their own investigation, which identified shortcomings in a government agency that was supposed to verify his age but did not go through any proceedings to find any physical evidence to support claims that he was born before 1992.
Mark McKinley, director of records at GWR, said: “We take tremendous pride in ensuring as best we can the accuracy and integrity of all our record titles.
“Following concerns raised by vets and other experts, both privately as well as within public commentary, and the findings of investigations conducted by some media outlets, we felt it important to open a review into Bobi’s record.”
These investigations have now caused GWR to up their reviewing process, causing many applicants to be unable to provide evidence that GWR would find plausible.
According to a vet working with NaturVet, they claim that the best way to identify a dog is using their teeth: the decay, the calculus build up and the root exposure. However, it is still close to impossible to use this, as this can usually only show that the dog is over 10 years old. GWR understands that due to the lack of microchipping in previous decades, it is going to be hard to prove the age of your pet.
- Read the full advice for identifying your pets age here : HOW OLD IS MY DOG? TIPS AND TRICKS
“It’s going to take a long time for microchip uptake around the world to catch up with pet ownership, especially of older pets.
“Until that time, we’ll require documentary evidence for all years of a pet’s life, we’ll continue to ask for vet and witness statements and we’ll also consider microchip data as well where available.
“It’s for this reason that we’re not yet in a position to confirm a new holder for the record, although we certainly hope that the publicity around the record title encourages pet owners from around the world to get in touch.”
- Do you think you have Merseyside’s oldest pet? We are still looking for Merseyside’s oldest dog/pet. Take a look here:
Featured image (c) Guinness World Records
