Cocoa Shell Mulch, dangerous and fatal around dogs and cats! BEWARE!

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THIS IS FROM LIDDY, THANKS AGAIN! WANDA

Warning for pet owners or friends of Pet Owners

Please tell every dog or cat owner you know. Even if you don't have a pet, please pass this to those who do.

Over the weekend, the doting owner of two young lab mixes purchased Cocoa Mulch from Target to use in their garden. The dogs loved the way it smelled and it was advertised to keep cats away from
their garden. Their dog (Calypso) decided the mulch smelled good
enough to eat and devoured a large helping. She vomited a few times
which was typical when she eats something new but wasn't acting
lethargic in any way. The next day, Mom woke up and took Calypso out
for her morning walk. Halfway through the walk, she had a seizure and
died instantly.

Although the mulch had NO warnings printed on the label, upon further investigation on the company's web site,

This product is HIGHLY toxic to dogs and cats.

Cocoa Mulch is manufactured by Hershey's, and they claim that "It is true that studies have shown that 50% of the dogs that eat Cocoa Mulch can suffer physical harm to a variety of degrees (depending on
each individual dog). However, 98% of all dogs won't eat it."
*Snopes site gives the following information:

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoamulch.asp *

Cocoa Mulch, which is sold by Home Depot, Foreman's Garden Supply and other garden supply stores contains a lethal ingredient called 'Theobromine'. It is lethal to dogs and cats. It smells like chocolate
and it really attracts dogs. They will ingest this stuff and die.
Several deaths already occurred in the last 2-3 weeks.

Theobromine is in all chocolate, especially dark or baker's chocolate which is toxic to dogs. Cocoa bean shells contain potentially toxic quantities of theobromine, a xanthine compound
similar in effects to caffeine and theophylline. A dog that ingested a
lethal quantity of garden mulch made from cacao bean shells developed
severe convulsions and died 17 hours later. Analysis of the stomach
contents and the ingested cacao bean shells revealed the presence of
lethal amounts of theobromine.

**PLEASE PASS THIS ON**

(Fwd: From my inbox)

Hey friends here is the original post i had buried in the comments section, ahh i was such a newbie back then!! So thanks to Liddy we now see the product, so see the other featured discussions, on poisonous plants ect Comment by Wanda P=WW! on July 24, 2008 at 9:23pm Delete Comment
Here is another warning for all you animals lovers, please take these
into consideration. It a warning for all of the dog lovers out there..Dog Owners Beware of Cocoa Mulch
by Sandra Mason

July 10, 2005

I'm a big believer in mulch. I don't know how I survived without long
underwear, flannel sheets and mulch. However, as a University of
Illinois Extension educator I have found that even a good thing can
sometimes be a bad thing. People mulch plants too heavily (more that
four inches) or they bury the trunk or stem.

The best mulch is one that is a by-product of some of our other
landscape activities such as wood chips, compost, or grass clippings.
One mulch, cocoa hulls, is a by-product of the chocolate industry.

As a bonus you get a chocolate smell when you put them in the garden.
Some people tell me they also like the finer chips and more refined
look of cocoa hulls.

Like other mulches the cocoa hulls help to prevent weed seed
germination, moderate soil temperatures and help to conserve moisture.
However, something I had never considered was that dogs might be
attracted to the sweet smell of the cocoa mulch. Ok so what? So the dog
likes to roll and dig in the cocoa mulch. If you are a dog owner,
hopefully you know not to feed your dog chocolate since it can be
poisonous to them. However, research has shown that cocoa mulch, which
contains some of the same toxins as in chocolate, may be ingested as
dogs dig through it.

Michelle Wiesbrook and Sharon Gwaltney-Brant reported in a recent
University of Illinois Extension Home, Yard and Garden Pest newsletter
that chocolate contains two compounds toxic to dogs. They are
methylxanthines, specifically theobromine and caffeine.

So how much is too much for a pooch? As Wiesbrook and Gwaltney-Brant
reported, the amount of methylxanthines in cocoa hulls is substantial
at 255 mg/oz. And that's just the theobromine; no data was available
for caffeine. In comparison, milk chocolate has only 64 mg/oz of
methylxanthines, and less than 1 oz of milk chocolate/lb (2 oz/kg) is
potentially lethal to dogs. So 65 oz (4 lb) of milk chocolate would be
potentially lethal for a 65-lb dog. But, if she were to eat cocoa-hull
mulch, it would only take about 2.25 oz to produce mild signs and 12 oz
to be potentially lethal. Of course, these amounts would be much less
for a smaller dog.

Some manufacturers do include a warning statement on the bag. If you
have an older dog that isn't all that inquisitive, cocoa mulch may not
be a problem, but if you have a young dog that tends to dig and chew,
you may want to consider different mulch.

For more information, call your local veterinarian or animal poison
control center. You can reach a link to the center by clicking on
http://www.aspca.org. Also at this site is an article on chocolate
intoxication that gives detailed information on clinical signs and
treatment, as well as an example for calculating the methylxanthine
dosage. At the above Web address, you'll also find information on
protecting your pet from pesticides and fertilizers, as well as a list
of plants that are toxic to pets. Thanks to Wiesbrook and
Gwaltney–Brant for alerting us to this potential problem.

Sandra Mason is a unit-based horticulture educator with University of
Illinois Extension. She provides leadership and expertise in
horticulture and environmental programs in Champaign County. Mason has
a B.S. (with honors) in horticulture and a M.S. degree in agricultural
education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She held
a wide variety horticultural positions before joining Extension.

We thank Sandra for granting us permission to put her article on our website.

http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/index.html

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