Thread: warning popular mulch danger to cats and dogs

FYI--please read

Peace,
Danika Nadzan
Executive Director
423-289-5548
East Tennessee Spay & Neuter
www.etnspayneuter.org

















Subject: Fw: Danger! Attention all pet owners - urgent!


Pass this on.










Danger! Attention all pet owners - urgent!








Please tell every dog or cat owner you know. Even if you don't have a pet, please pass this to those who do.


Cocoa Mulch, which is sold by Target, 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.


Over the weekend, the doting owner of two young lab mixes purchased Cocoa Mulch from Target 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."


Be sure to read this for more information about chocolate and pets:

*Snopes site gives the following information:http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoamulch.asp *



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**



this is also danger to small children who mite pick up pieces and ingest them or chew on them cause they small like chocolate.. so beware






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I hope it's not true/still on the market, but I'll still keep an eye out......eek...

The Dog Killer Cocoa Mulch Threat: A Persistent Fake
Article by Rebecca Scudder (15,912 pts ) , published Apr 1, 2010

A new email hoax asking to be forwarded to everyone I know appeared in my inbox. Purportedly, dogs were dying right and left because of a dangerous organic garden mulch- cocoa bean mulch. I had not realized it was a danger, so I read on...


Well, I just received another frantic warning in my email today. It concerns cocoa mulch, which the email said was being sold by Home Depot, Target, Foreman’s, and other garden supply places, made by Hershey, and was killing dogs.

Is it true? Well, it is not killing dogs. Is there anything to it? Barely.

My email, which was forwarded to me by a well-meaning friend, accused Home Depot, Target, Foreman’s Garden Supply, and others of selling the dangerous product cocoa mulch. There were pitiful stories of happy friendly dogs that keeled over after eating a bit of this popular mulch.
Cocoa bean mulch

Cocoa mulch, or cocoa bean mulch, has much to recommend it. It needs to be put down in a layer only an inch thick, holds water in the soil beneath it, and after a rain or two, forms a hard shell from a natural gum in the shells, which bonds them together. Because of the shell, the thin layer is enough to discourage weeds. It lasts about a year, degrades into wonderful material to turn over into your garden, and does not take up nitrogen from the soil. It also discourages slugs (a great idea, in my book), and it smells like chocolate. The small fades gradually, but a rain will strengthen the smell again.

Do I sound like a mulch commercial? I’ve gone into so much detail about its good points because of the bad publicity it is getting from people who don’t know much about it- and some that should.

Well, Is it true?

I have a knee jerk reaction after getting this sort of email to research it and find out if there is any truth in it. If it turns out to be nonsense, I send back an email about it to the person who forwarded it to me.

This is an interesting rumor, because some of the most popular urban legend sites are calling it true. So I started digging.

Here is the sad story, pasted in, spelling, spacing and all, from the email.:

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 from Target 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 li ke 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**

First, the Hershey Chocolate company says it does not make cocoa bean mulch. A look at the sites in the email, Home Depot, Target and Lowes, did not show them carrying the product either.

The product the doting owner bought is not specified, so I was unable to check for a warning on the site or not.


Theobromine, the 'lethal' ingredient, is in chocolate, and in large enough quantities, can kill dogs, cats - and humans.

* There is an article, Drolet R, Arendt TD, Stowe CM. Cacao bean shell poisoning in a dog. JAVMA 1984;185(8): 902., of a vet who did an autopsy on a dog who died after eating cocoa mulch, and found a large quantity of cocoa bean hulls in the dog's stomach.

This is the citation used by everyone, when they bother to use one, but I have not been able to find a copy of the article online.


There are no further articles from reliable sources until the ASPCA report mentioned on the next page....

So- Hoax or Not?

We have already found out the store mentioned in the email are not carrying the product discussed in the email. Now, we look at real information about any dangers from cocoa mulch.

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Checking it out

It is at least partially fictitious. Is there any truth? A couple of the other urban scams sites mention it as true or partially true. The story, in pretty much the same form, has been around since 2003, at least. So Calypso, if she existed, did not die last week. Googling cocoa mulch brings up a lot of the scare stories, but the ASPCA site also came up, and I figured they were likely to have looked into the truth of the scare.

The ASPCA has indeed checked out the story. Theobromine is an ingredient in cocoa and chocolate and found in smaller amounts in cocoa bean shells. Dogs and cats are made sick by too much theobromine, and if they eat a large quantity, they will vomit, may have diarrhea, get muscle tremors, and tachycardia. This is a progression that happens to the animal, and they do not die suddenly, or keel over. In general, despite the smell coming from the mulch, cats and most dogs are not interested in it. There are a few dogs that will root in the mulch, and possibly eat some.

* In 1984 a story was published in a veterinary journal about a dog, which after death was found to have a quantity of cocoa beans in her stomach. (cited above) Knowing that chocolate can kill dogs and cats in large enough amounts (don’t give them your half pound Easter bunny), the writer warned that cocoa mulch could be a danger if eaten in quantity.

What the ASPCA says

A number of people contacted the ASPCA after the email started makings its rounds in 2003, and the ASPCA investigated 16 cases reported to them. They have said on their website that “To date, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center has not received any cases involving animal deaths due to cocoa mulch ingestion.” They also publish a PDF on their site about the cocoa mulch investigation.

They specifically looked into the 6 cases that had the most information. The outcome was known, there was evidence of the dogs eating the mulch, and the managing veterinarians though that there was a least a medium relationship between eating the cocoa shells, and becoming sick. 50% of the dogs vomited, 33% had tremors, and 17% tachycardia. None of the reported 16 cases resulted in the death of the dog. Two thirds of the cases came from California. They agree that the amount of theobromine found in cocoa mulch was enough to make an animal sick if eaten in large enough quantities, but no deaths were confirmed.

They also reported that some dogs indiscriminately ate practically any organic material. They advise, if you have a less than discriminating pet, that you not leave them unsupervised in areas where cocoa mulch has been used. If you have such a dog, despite the advantages of cocoa mulch, you may want to use other mulch coverings.

Verdict

Dogs are not dying right and left. The stores accused in the email are not selling the product, whether or not they may have carried it in the past. It is a good organic product, and for most people, a great choice to use as a mulch. I do not have a dog, and the idea of chocolate mulch sounds really nice. Maybe I’ll try to find some and put it down over Easter week. It would be a great time of year to have a yard that smells like chocolate. It is not expensive, and even carried at Amazon.

Yes, if you have a dog that eats anything in sight, you should keep an eye on them if you smell chocolate in someone’s yard. You should also make sure they don’t steal chocolate cake or brownies off the table, or eat your Easter candy. But you probably already do that. You know what they are like. And I have not heard any stories anywhere about people standing on the corner with a baggie full of cocoa mulch, calling “Here, doggie, here doggie.”

If you get an email with asking you to forward the cocoa mulch threat, send them a link to this article or the ASPCA report, and delete the email.

Don't pig out on dark chocolate yourself, either.



http://www.brighthub.com/society/cul...#ixzz0mpwIQI4Q



Additional information - Hershey - then and now

Hershey, as I reported above, does not currently sell cocoa bean mulch. However, further investigation with webarchive shows that back in 2002, they did. At that point, the information about them in the forwarded email was correct, as these pictures show.

Hershey evidently felt that the publicity when the email started circulating in 2003 was not good for their image. Now, they are not giving out the impression they ever had anything to do with the mulch. Candy must have a squeaky clean image, even if the ASPCA report showed that the email had very little to substantiate it.

Hershey site screenshots- past shots taken on webarchive.org site / all shots taken on 3/31/2010

It is clear that in 2002 Hershey was issuing a clear and sensible warning when they were selling the cocoa mulch, even if they later decided they should stop selling the product.