“It’s true that I’m thought-about an professional on canine coat colour,” Sheila Schmutz, an emeritus professor of animal and poultry science on the College of Saskatchewan in Canada, informed me. “Not less than when it comes to genetics.” I despatched Schmutz, who has revealed a number of papers concerning the coats of canine and cattle, a choice of images of Bobi taken in 1999, 2016, and 2022, and requested her whether or not the images seemed to be of the identical canine.
Schmutz wasn’t positive. In a number of images Bobi’s fur seemed to be pink, whereas in one other it regarded like he had a brown coat. Brown and pink coats, Schmutz assured me, are two very totally different colours. “I had my husband take a look at the picture set too and he agrees that we are able to perceive why individuals don’t assume it’s the identical canine in all of the images, nevertheless it’s not completely clear to us,” she wrote. “Want this had been extra clearcut …” she signed off her electronic mail.
For certainty, I must look elsewhere, and so I turned to Karen Becker, a veterinarian and writer of The Perpetually Canine: Stunning New Science to Assist Your Canine Companion Stay Youthful, More healthy, and Longer. In a number of articles, Becker was credited as the one who broke the information of Bobi’s loss of life, in a post on her Fb 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. “A lot is wrong,” Adams wrote. “Bobi by no means ate uncooked meals, he solely ate do-it-yourself cooked meals, he’s a mutt not a purebred, and the foyer group waited till the poor little man’s cremation day to lift inquiries to Guinness about further testing.”
Wait—what? A foyer group? It was true that the GWR article about Bobi, and plenty of the next press protection, had picked up on the element that Bobi solely ate “human meals,” an element that Bobi’s proprietor, Leonel Costa, cited as a motive for his canine’s uncommon longevity. (Costa didn’t reply to WIRED’s requests for remark.) However 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.
“Effectively, these of us within the pet house realize it by no means goes nicely once you threaten a multi-billion greenback empire,” Adams wrote to me. “The Guardian article made it clear that is concerning the considerations vets have if individuals do what Leonel did and feed a home-cooked weight-reduction plan … Bobi straight threatens this complete trade.” Hooked up was a screenshot of the world’s high 10 pet meals producers, as ranked by petfoodindustry.com. Topping the listing had been Mars Petcare Inc., Nestlé Purina PetCare, and Hill’s Pet Diet.
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