FRANCE – A French toy spaniel named Lazare, believed to have been one of the world’s oldest dogs, has died at the age of 30, his carer said on Friday 15 May.

Contacted by AFP, Guinness World Records said it “did not receive an application or associated evidence” before Lazare passed away on Thursday (14 May), so it could not confirm whether he held the record.

Lazare, a Papillon dwarf spaniel with stand-up “butterfly” ears, was born on Monday 4 December 1995, according to animal charity worker Anne-Sophie Moyon.

He spent most of his life with the same companion until she died, and then he ended up at the charity’s shelter.

Ophelie Boudol, a 29-year-old single mother, fell in love with the Lazare at the shelter last month.

She had initially intended to find a pet for her mother, she told AFP, but instead ended up taking Lazare home to her nine-year-old son and two cats. “He had been found next to the body of his owner,” she said she was told.

“I spent half an hour sitting next to him, then I said, ‘Listen, if nobody wants to take him, I don’t mind – as long as he gets on with the cats,” she told AFP.

Lazare, whom Boudol called “our little grandpa baby”, died just weeks later. “He started slipping away in my arms last night,” she said. “He was off to reunite with his first carer”.

At 30 years and five months old, Lazare wore nappies, could no longer hear or see, and slept almost all day.

But Boudol said he was delightfully spirited.

“He really has such an endearing personality,” she told AFP earlier this week, cradling him at home in the southeastern town of Villy-le-Pelloux.

When Moyon and colleagues discovered Lazare’s age, they thought “Lazare might be the world’s oldest dog”, she said. They verified his birth date in two registries and filled in the paperwork to register him for a possible record, as a joke, she added.

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A Portuguese Rafeiro do Alentejo named Bobi was thought to be the oldest dog when he died, reportedly aged 31 in 2023, according to the Guinness World Records website, but according to a review in 2024, there was not enough conclusive evidence of his age.