Cocoa Mulch Danger

plafleursr

New member
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. 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: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 GIVE THIS THE WIDEST DISTRIBUTION!!!


Please
 

zennewf

New member
Terrible ... I can't believe this product is still sold. I remember reading about dog deaths from this a good six months ago.


Thanks for posting.

Liz
 

KodysGrandma

New member
This is one of the biggest benefits of NN. There are so many of us keeping track of what may harm our furbabies that if one of us doesn't see it chances are excellent that someone else will. Keep posting everyone, even if you think we all have heard it.
 

4ondafloor

New member
WOW! I guess my question would be why would they even make something like this if it were so devastatingly harmful to animals? ~sheesh!~
 

victoria1140

Active member
if it isnt advertised as dangerous on the packaging then I think there could be a good case for negligence as surely it should be printed on the packaging as who is normally going to read a website first
 

ozzysma

New member
this is the same reason chocolate is poisonous to dogs. cocoa mulch is the shells of cocoa beans. makes a great garden cover and keeps weeds down. i have had it in gardens before and never found my dogs attracted to it, but then i would never put it in a garden that my dogs had unsupervised access to. there are many things poisonous to dogs that do not carry labels.
 
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