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golo animal lovers: blog

golo animal lovers' blog


warning to all dog owners!

by Just call me Red
Published Jul. 29, 2008

I recieved this in a email... Scary.... 

WHY WOULD ANYONE MAKE THIS STUFF?

My dog would eat it in a heartbeat I bet since it smells like chocolate.... 

Please read & pass on to dog owners

Yesterday one 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 dog owner you
know.

Over the weekend the doting owner of two young
lab mixes purchased
Cocoa Mulch from Target to use in their
garden. They loved the way
it smelled and it was advertised to keep cats
away from their
garden. Their dog Calypso, decided that 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. Half way 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 companies web
site, this product is
HIGHLY toxic to dogs.

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.'

True information about the mulch can be found
here -

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoa.htm This site
gives
the following information:

Cocoa Mulch, which is sold by Home Depot,
Foreman's Garden Supply
and other Garden supply stores, contains a
lethal ingredient called
'Theo bromine'.

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.
Just a word of
caution , check what you are using in your
gardens and be aware of
what other gardeners are using in their gardens.


Theo bromine is the ingredient that is used to
make 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.



13 Comments


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We are trying to develope a plan for a completely dog friendly back yard. The ASPCA site has been extremely helpful as they have a list of all the toxic plants. Check it out. http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pro_apcc_toxicplants

Wish it killed deer.

Thanks for the warning. My parents lost a dog because of chocolate. I kept telling them to stop giving Mitzi hershey kisses for a treat. They did, but it was too late. She died of kidney failure on Christmas Eve in 1991. Folks don't realize that chocolate breaks down the kidney enzymes.

thanks for posting this... I will pass this info along!

Grant... do you always show your ignorance or is this a severe case of insensitivity?

Cool, now I can keep the neighborhood dogs out of my yard for good! Thanks for the Ad. I'm gonna put some out next weekend.

Amen...why even come up with such a product?

This is sad about the dog.Thank you for this information you have been very helpfull.

This is good information, but slightly outdated. They've been stripping the material used to make this stuff of the offending chemicals for a few years now.

That said, don't ever give a dog chocolate, for any reason.

I thought everyone knew that chocolate was toxic to dogs.

Thanks,,I will pass on the info.

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