Just got this and thought it of interest based on the garlic discussion that
has been going on.
Forwarded with permission.

Dean Mair


>From: "Butcher, Amy" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Something interesting to share...
>Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 08:46:24 -0400
>X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2448.0)
>
>My friends and family:
>
>Following is a post that appeared on the sheltie-list email list. I forward
>now to all my doggie-like friends who do not share this list, as I think we
>all kind of tend to be a little bit skeptical about this sort of thing. Be
>aware, my own personal experience has been, chocolate, garlic and onions in
>small amounts doesn't hurt the dog. However, after reading the following, my
>thinking has changed enormously. As with humans, metabolic and physiologic
>make-up in dogs varies from dog to dog. Something that Fido tolerates with
>no problems may well kill Fifi almost immediately. Be aware that onions,
>garlic and chocolate have all proven lethal in one or another dog at some
>point down the line, and we can't know until the dog is dead, that that
>particular dog's system couldn't handle the foreign chemical composition of
>one of these food items. Though I've never had a dog become ill after eating
>something like this (all mine are garbage hounds and will eat almost
>ANYTHING they can get their teeth into!), it doesn't mean that the next dog
>I hand a small bit of chocolate to will survive. Never again for this dog
>lover, at least.
>
>And now, on to the important stuff:
>
>Copied from the Chow-Chow rescue list and re-printed with permission:
>
>***************
>
>LETHAL CHOCOLATE!!!
>
>Sometimes, sports fans, I feel like the proverbial broken record... I keep
>saying the same thing, over and over, and over again and hope that someone
>is listening...
>
>It makes no difference to me I would have said a few hours ago. If people
>don't want to listen, then it is not my problem. That was a few hours ago.
>Right now I am typing as one is supposed to type, without looking at the
>keyboard, because frankly, I cannot see the keys if I look at them...
>
>How often have I preached the sermon on the onion and the sermon on the
>garlic and the sermon on the chocolate??? And how often have I read posts or
>heard comments that it is okay to give garlic or a bit of onion and that as
>long as it is not cooking chocolate it won't hurt... or the old tried and
>true, well, we have always done it so it won't hurt my dog...
>
>WRONG!!!!
>DOUBLE WRONG!!!!
>
>And yes, I know I am shouting...
>
>I want to get through to people that onions, garlic and chocolate are lethal
>to dogs... and, while we like to pretend our Chows are not dogs, it is
>lethal to them too...
>
>We have been waiting for the stomach contents analysis to come back from the
>post mortem done on The MacKenzie Kid... the vet who did the first pm laid
>the blame on congestive heart failure... but the symptoms were not there.
>This was not a progressive thing, he was not tired and ill, he was a healthy
>active eager dog and only three years old - to the ruddy day. To compound
>the conundrum, the symptoms were not consistent with any known poison or
>virus... he simply collapsed, went into convulsions and died of a massive
>heart attack... to put it bluntly and if being blunt saves another dog, I
>shall be blunt: His heart exploded...
>
>It happened to another dog, one I used to show, a two year-old with no
>history of heart trouble within days of MacKenzie's death... identical
>symptoms... having learned what killed Lily we were able to tell my vet what
>it might have been... but I knew it couldn't be because The Kid never was
>given chocolate...
>
>Lily died of a massive heart attack from eating a bit of chocolate... It was
>not possible for The Kid, but I mentioned it to the vet anyway...
>diffidently, for what it's worth... you know the tone... after all, it
>couldn't have been the cause...
>
>She sighed, took a deep breath and told me that they had found chocolate in
>his stomach contants... perhaps the equivalent of one square from a Jersey
>Milk bar (or a Hershey Bar)... the vet explained that the theobromine works
>in such a way that the chocolate in conjunction with the excitement of going
>for a walk caused the heart to explode...
>
>So, my friends, and so, my foes, when I preaches the gospel against onions
>and chocolate and garlic, it is not because I have nothing better to do at
>that moment in time... because someone slipped this boy a bit of chocolate
>thinking a little bit couldn't hurt, The MacKenzie Kid is buried under a
>rose bush, the inuksuk has a new responsibility and I will never take that
>character into the ring again, never watch him play to the crowd, never know
>the fun of seeing his fans at ring side because they had to be there for him
>having met him earlier in the day... I have a fist full of ribbons, some
>incredible show photos and some wonderful shots of him, framed and hanging
>on the wall. I have his granddaughter and I will have another granddaughter
>one day when Tundra is bred. I will never again know the excitement of a
>walk in the park with The Kid. I will never again know the thrill of
>whelping a litter sired by The Kid... and all it was a little bit of
>chocolate... it couldn't hurt anyone, could it...