If you care for a pet, please read!

[retread]

 
Please tell every dog or cat owner you know.  Even if you don't have a pet,
please pass this on 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, the doting owner woke up and took Calypso out for her morning
walk.  Half way through the walk, Calypso 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
cats AND 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."  

*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.  

[Camella Black]

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/10/cocoa_mulch.html

This is a good article on the subject. We had a scare with Nemo last year when he decided to raid the garbage can that I forgot and left in the kitchen... it contained a 2 layer dark chocolate cake that I had made (which fell) and discarded. We caught him in time and rushed him to the vet where he had to stay overnight and recieve treatments.

[retired nuke]

We lost our old dog over the Christmas holiday from chocolate - he loved it.
But a 10 yo, 10 lb chihuahua mix, already suffering from partial kidney failure from Lyme disease, getting into a bag of dark chcolate kisses is at risk. We didn't find out until we found the wrappers a few days later.... too late. 
Just the fact that this material has "cocoa" as part of it's name makes me suspect it... cocoa products are very dangerous to dogs, something that the general public sometimes doesn't understand.

Thanks for the warning.