World’s oldest dog Migrant smuggling network
Bobi stripped of his title
BOBI the dog has been posthumously stripped of his title as world’s oldest dog over a dispute about his real age.
Guinness World Records (GWR) said it had no evidence that the elderly canine, who died last year, was as old as claimed.
The organisation said the microchip claimed to prove Bobi’s age was not sufficient proof to grant him the title, awarded in February last year.
GWR said it had not yet determined which dog was the new record holder.
Bobi was a Rafeiro do Alentejo from Conqueiros, Portugal.
The breed typically lives for around 12-14 years. But when Bobi was awarded the award, it was claimed that he was 30 years old.
Bobi died in October 2023, at the reported age of 31 years and 165 days.
But GWR launched an investigation into the evidence used to prove the title last month, following doubts being raised over its reliability in proving Bobi’s age.
GWR said: “We’re left with no conclusive evidence which can definitively prove Bobi’s date of birth.
“Without any conclusive evidence available to us right now, we simply can’t retain Bobi as the record holder.”
Bobi’s owner, Leonel Costa, has not commented on the record’s removal, but had previously said suspicions over the veracity of the dog’s age were “unfounded”.
Last month, Danny Chambers of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons told the Guardian that “not a single one” of his vet colleagues believed that the dog actually lived to 31.
The previous oldest dog ever was Australia’s Bluey, who died in 1939 at the age of 29 years and five months.
THE HAGUE - One of the biggest migrant smuggling networks across the English channel was dismantled with the arrest of 19 people in Germany, including the leader and four main organisers, Europol said on Thursday following a large-scale operation conducted with German, French and Belgian police.
“The investigation focused on an Iraqi-Kurdish network suspected of smuggling Middle Eastern and East African irregular migrants from France to the UK with the use of low quality inflatable boats,” the EU’s law enforcement agency said.
The suspects of the investigation, launched at the end of 2022, organised the purchase, storage and transportation of the inflatable boats, mainly of Chinese origin, that they later used to smuggle migrants from the beaches near the French city of Calais toward the UK.
On average, the gang would put 50 migrants in the boats suited for a maximum of 10 passengers, charging between 1000-3000 euros ($F2433-$7300) per migrant, Europol said.