Foreign Friday - Minnesota!

Death By Chocolate No More - LOLgislation #F020

MN Senate 09-10: S.F. No. 0122, 1st Engrossment
By Senator D. Scott Dibble (DFL)

A bill for an act relating to pet animals; requiring a notice for retail sales of unprocessed cocoa bean shell mulch; proposing coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 325E.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

    Section 1. [325E.128] NOTICE FOR UNPROCESSED COCOA BEAN SHELL MULCH.
(a) Except as provided in paragraph (d), a person who sells a product containing cocoa bean shell mulch at retail must post the notice in paragraph (b) in a manner clearly visible to a consumer examining a product containing cocoa bean mulch offered for sale.
(b) The notice must be in 36-point type or larger and state: "The ingestion of cocoa bean shell mulch that has not been processed to be nontoxic is poisonous to pets. If a pet has eaten unprocessed cocoa bean shell mulch, you should immediately contact a veterinarian or the Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435."
(c) A retailer may include additional language in the notice in order to promote the sale of a product containing unprocessed cocoa bean shell mulch, provided that the language in paragraph (b) is present.
(d) This section does not apply to the sale of product containing cocoa bean shell mulch that has been processed to remove theobromine to a nontoxic level from the cocoa bean shell mulch.

When I initially saw the summary, "requiring posted notice," I was thinking something like those little pesticide or security system yard signs. Like, included in each bag of chocolate mulch would be a little sign for one to announce to dog-walking neighbors that one's yard is deadly.

But no.

Apparently dog owners don't sufficiently comprehend that chocolate mulch – literally made of chocolate – will have the same effect on their dogs as… chocolate.