Cocoa Mulch (DEADLY TO PETS)

Please share this with all the pet owners you know and ask them to do the same–the information you take a few minutes to share might prevent the senseless loss of other pets.

Please 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 fromTarget to use in their garden. The dogs loved the way it smelled and it was advertised to keep cats away from their garden. Their dog (Calypso) decided 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 web site, 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.”
*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 PASS THIS ON**

03/23/10

I thought this was neat 🙂

03/11/10

Added 2 of our current foster dogs to the new Rescues/Fosters page. Also posted a dog that has only til march 15th to find a foster home or risk being put to sleep 🙁 Please if you know of anyone direct them to this page.

03/06/10

Added two articles to the Articles worth a read page, more to come of course.

02/26/10

Added a new article to the “Articles Worth a Read” page.

02/25/10

Slowly getting the Gallery up to where it needs to be.  Added pictures of current dogs and past dogs, more to come.

02/23/10

Posted a sample of our purchase agreement on the Available Dogs/Puppies page and the Litters in Planning page.

02/21/10

Denym was adopted by a wonderful family today!

02/20/10

Added pedigree for the litter we have planned for later 2010 [CH Clique x Braidy]
Cleaned up Available dogs/puppies page to show what we have available as of today’s date.
Moved adopted dogs from available to past dogs.

We have also added pedigrees for dogs we currently own, they are hosted at pawvillage.com and linked from the boys/girls pages.

02/09/10

Clique came home with a Group 3 & Group 4 placement from Perry GA.  No majors towards his champion title though.

We have decided to put Brogen up for adoption so check him out on the available dogs and puppies page.