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...
Updated
The email
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 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.”
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.
On the next page we look at the facts on the cocoa mulch scare.