BEWARE OF COCOA SHELL MULCH IF YOU HAVE PETS

I received an e-mail from a former co-worker about the above and I checked it out on Snopes
and it is partly true because it contains caffeine and theobromine in the shells and if the animal likes it and eats it - it can cause symptoms from nausea and vomiting for small amounts to seizures and death if a large amount is ingested. 

It does sound like from the article that it is rare that a dog or other animal would ingest enough to become lethal (only one dog of record has died from it) and that the some brands may wash most of the chemicals out before processing for mulch - just something to keep in mind when selecting mulch.

For further details see the article at Snopes.