“It is true that I am considered an expert on dog coat color,” Sheila Schmutz, an emeritus professor of animal and poultry science on the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, advised me. “At least in terms of genetics.” I despatched Schmutz, who has printed a number of papers concerning the coats of canines and cattle, a number of photographs of Bobi taken in 1999, 2016, and 2022, and requested her whether or not the photographs seemed to be of the identical canine.

Schmutz wasn’t certain. In a number of photographs Bobi’s fur seemed to be pink, whereas in one other it seemed 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 writer 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 demise, in a post 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 plenty of the following press protection, had picked up on the element that Bobi solely ate “human food,” an element that Bobi’s proprietor, Leonel Costa, cited as a purpose for his canine’s uncommon longevity. (Costa didn’t reply to WIRED’s requests for remark.) But Adams’ reference to a foyer group gave the impression 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 prime 10 pet meals producers, as ranked by petfoodindustry.com. Topping the record have been Mars Petcare Inc., Nestlé Purina PetCare, and Hill’s Pet Nutrition.