Cocoa Mulch: Danger to Pets

Verified by Snopes

  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.

  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 - <a href="http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoa.htm" target="_blank">http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoa.htm</a>

The 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 "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. Just a word of caution  -  check what you are using in your gardens and be aware of what your gardeners are using in your gardens.

  Theobromine 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.

thanks for the info!!! The immediate danger to my pets seems to be my neighbor though. My favorite stepdaughter caught him taking shots at them in my yard around midnight last nite when she let them out. She went out with them to have a smoke.

I heard that it wasn't good to feed dogs chocolate but didn't know if it was true or not.
I also heard that cat's can't digest onions, again i don't know the validity of this

Actually, onions are more harmful to dogs than to cats.The rottweiller we had would throw up if any onions were on a leftover burger that he ate.

As to chocolate, almost all the cats I've had liked the stuff, and suffered no ill effects from eating a little bit.