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 company's website, 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.'
This Snopes site gives the following
information:
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.
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