[Loch-Ruadh] OT: Important for pet owners!!! poisonous cocoa mulch

[Kevin Valliquette]

I realize this is an off topic post, but I feel compelled to reply. My
day job in the mundane world is in the gardening industry, and I will
confirm that this is true (although the actual numbers of reported
incidents are often greatly exaggerated) and my company does not stock
cocoa mulch, in part for this reason. As an aside, I would also
recommend against most commercially available mulches (though my
employer would probably not like me to say so), including wood mulches
of any kind. Most of them are very bad for the soil in your beds over
time. The worst is probably pecan hulls, which increases the acidity
of the soil very quickly, and can render it unable to support most
desirable plant life within just a season or two (the notable
exception being azaleas, which thrive in acidic conditions). The best
choice for mulch is compost, from your own composting efforts if
possible, or there are some commercially available bagged compost
mulches. Of those, I heartily recommend cotton burr-based compost (the
Back to Nature brand is widely available and is a fine choice).

That's all probably of only limited interest to a few, but there it
is. Now I have to make an on topic post...

-Grímólfr



On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 10:32 PM, Julie Self <julie_self at hotmail.com> wrote:
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> The following was sent to me by my daughter.  It is important!!
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> Subject: FW: Important for pet owners!!! poisonous cocoa mulchDate: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 17:09:15 -0500
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> Yikes!  Just thought you pet owners might want to know.  (Proven true by Snopes)
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> Subject: Important for pet owners!!!
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> Even if you don't have a pet, please pass this to those that do Yesterdayone of our dog agility friends experienced a tragedy and wanted me to pass a special message along to all of my dog loving friends and family.Please tell every dog owner you know.  Over the weekend the doting owner oftwo young lab mixes purchased Cocoa Mulch from Target to use in theirgarden. They loved the way it smelled, and it was advertised to keep catsaway from their garden.Their dog Calypso decided that the mulch smelled good enough to eat anddevoured a large helping. She vomited a few times which was typical when sheeats something new but wasn't acting lethargic in any way. The next day, Momwoke up and took Calypso out for her morning walk. Half way through thewalk, she had a seizure and died instantly.Although the mulch had NO warnings printed on the label, upon furtherinvestigation on the company's website, this product is HIGHLY toxic to dogsand cats.  Cocoa Mulch is manufactured by Hershey's,
>  and they claim that Itis true that studies have shown that 50% of the dogs that eat Cocoa Mulchcan suffer physical harm to a variety of degrees depending on eachindividual dog). 'However, 98% of all dogs won't eat it.' This Snopes site (http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoamulch.asp)gives the following information:  Cocoa Mulch, which issold by Home Depot, Foreman's Garden Supply and other Garden supply stores,contains a lethal ingredient called 'Theobromine'.  It is lethal to dogs andcats. It smells like chocolate and it really attracts dogs. They will ingestthis stuff and die. Several deaths already occurred in the last 2-3 weeks.Just a word of caution, check what you are using in your gardens and beaware of what your gardeners are using in your gardens.Theobromine is in all chocolate, especially dark or baker's chocolate whichis toxic to dogs.  Cocoa bean shells contain potentially toxic quantities oftheobromine, axanthine compound similar in effects to caffeine a
>  ndtheophylline. A dog that ingested a lethal quantity of garden mulch madefrom cacao bean shells developed severe convulsions and died 17 hours later.Analysis of the stomach contents and the ingested cacao bean shells revealedthe presence of lethal amounts of theobromine.PLEASE GIVE THIS THE WIDEST DISTRIBUTION!!!