The male from Portugal, a member of the “Rafeiro do Alentejo” breed, died last October – reportedly at the age of 31.

Even back then I thought it was a nonsense, partly because there is a dog in my neighborhood who is said to be 19 and is already in a state somewhere between life and death.

The dear senior citizen from our neighborhood walks slowly like a turtle, barks with a cough and, according to his owner, is demented and incontinent.

It therefore seemed impossible to me that Bobi could be twelve years older than the neighbor's dog, especially since, according to the owner, he was said to have had an unhealthy diet throughout his life and was apparently far too fat.

In fact, considerable doubts have now been raised;

The editors of the Guinness Book therefore no longer list Bobi as the oldest dog in the world.

Enlarge image

Terriers doing business: Using genetic engineering to combat feces

Photo: Basak Gurbuz Derman / Getty Images

There was another dog story this week that gave me something to think about: It's about a new law from South Tyrol, which means that four-legged friends now have to go to the vet or another official sample collection point to have their snouts swabbed.

The animal's genetic material is then analyzed and stored in a database.

The aim is to track down all those owners who do not remove the smelly and greasy piles, but simply leave them lying on the sidewalk.

As much as I condemn it when dog owners don't give a shit about shit, my gut tells me the following: what a financial and human effort it takes to combat such a comparatively small problem!

Attempts to introduce DNA controls in Germany have so far failed - but for different reasons than one might suspect.

Heartfelt

Your Guido Kleinhubbert

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