My sweet Texas rancher friend sent me this warning in an e-mail today.URGENT WARNING
Cocoa Mulch, which is sold by Sainsbury's Homebase, 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. Cacao 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.
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Slug and snail bait is also deadly to pets.
I hope these warnings will save some innocent animals
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6 Comments:
Thanks Bev. Must be sure Mickey sees this because of his bees. He is very careful about putting must of anything on the lawn, etc. because of the bees.
Last summer when I was at the garden center to buy some mulch, I could smell chocolate and wondered what it was. The guy working there told me it was from the chocolate mulch...now I'm glad I didn't buy it!! I had jokingly told him I wouldn't buy it because I'd be tempted to eat it, it smelled so good! lol I don't ever want to hurt birds or animals intentionally so I'm glad you told us about this, dear Bev. xoxo
I have never seen this mulch, and I don't think I would have bought it, but thanks for the warning. I sure don't want anything out that might hurt any critters!
That's a good post, MM. I've never given dogs chocolate...it can be so lethal for them. In fact, we are very careful what is put on the garden here. No sprays or herbicides are used at all. We have too much native wildlife and the insects don't eat that much...
Thanks for sharing this warning, Bev. I don't buy mulch because my garden is too big and the expense would be prohibitive, but it's good to know this.
I'm very careful about what I use too..like the snail bait. We had a kitty once that used to eat slugs (ugh!) and she eventually sickened and died. I'm sure it was the snail bait that poisoned her so I stopped using it.
I have heard about this ingredient and I am grateful for the reminder... WE used regular bark mulch in our beds this spring....
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