Now, now RB.........
Years ago, before Kraft/General Foods eliminated making chocolate products at their Dover, DE plant, the entire town would smell of chocolate all summer long because all the employees brought home the spent cocoa beans for mulch and shared with their neighbors. It was HEAVENLY!
We lived in the same town as one of the Nestle’s plants and know EXACTLY what you’re talking about. We could predict the weather with it. If it smelled like someone baking chocolate chip cookies, it was going to rain.
It wasn’t from the cocoa bean mulch, though; the smell was just from the factory.
Cocoa mulch is really great. I’ve used it before for years, but never heard of any problems like this.
Cocoa bean mulch kills a few dogs each summer (out of the MILLIONS we have as pets in this country) and it’s time to trot out the summer horror stories so people have something to worry about.
There’s plenty of stuff under your kitchen cabinet that’ll kill your dog, too. Your cat would kill your dog if given half the chance, LOL! My yappy little dog once ate an entire bag of Hershey Kisses; tin foil and all. He lived.
There are plenty of ways for pets to die, so this is kind of alarmist. There’s “danger” everywhere. *SHRUG*