Man Dumps Chocolate Chips on Lawn to Deter Dogs

[UglyGreed]

A man in San Diego’s North Park community has dumped chocolate chips in his yard in an effort to deter dogs, but the act is upsetting neighbors.

Frustrated with neighborhood dogs leaving waste on his lawn and dog owners not picking up after their pets, a man known as "John" recently scattered several pounds of chocolate chips in the grass in front of his home on Lincoln Avenue and in a nearby easement.

John said it was an experiment – and that it worked. Over the last several days pet owners have been steering clear of his property, with some neighbors afraid the candy will make their animals sick.
Some concerned residents have called San Diego County Animal Control and the San Diego Police Department to complain, saying this is threatening the lives of their pets.


Source: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/North-Park-Lincoln-Ave-Chocolate-Chips-on-Lawn-for-Dogs-305996931.html#ixzz3c6HmdrWP
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[Brickbat]

1. Maliciously brilliant.

[sammythecat]

19. Malicious and cruel

Fuck that guy and his precious lawn. He has options other than poisoning any dog that happens to wander onto his lawn.

[joeybee12]

31. I'm sure San Diego has leash laws...

Which the owners aren't following hence they're going on the guy's lawn.

[Skittles]

43. nothing brilliant about it

he is a sick fuck

[Phentex]

2. That is so bizarre to me!

I realize the dog poop issue is very divided. Either people find it inexcusable or they just shrug it off as no big deal. But in my opinion, it's never the dog's fault: it's the owner!

[MineralMan]

3. My wife and I walk our two dogs twice a day in our neighborhood.

We religiously pick up their poop. I've noticed, though, that many others do not do this, and understand just how annoying that must be to homeowners. There are few things more annoying than having to clean your shoes after mowing your lawn.

Stop the Squish!

[NutmegYankee]

47. While I've had dogs mess on my yard before...

Lately it's been a skunk that's out on my yard every morning. I'm still trying to determine how to deter it. I'm leaning towards fox urine.

[Liberal_in_LA]

67. I have seen folks let their dogs poop on neighbors stoop and keep walking

[MineralMan]

68. Yuck. Where I live,

We have sidewalks and parkways or what they call boulevards here in Minnesota between the sidewalk and the street. We've trained our dogs to always do their business on that grassy strip, and always, always bag their poop and carry it home to dispose of. They also only pee on the trees in that grassy strip, which is actually city property, not the property of the homeowners.

It wasn't hard to teach the dogs to go only there. They're always on leash. I like dogs, and our neighbors like our dogs. They get lots of petting from the local kids and adults often comment on them, too. They're well behaved and stay where they're supposed to say, at least most of the time. Both of them have beagle in them, so they do tend to range back and forth, sniffing the ground, as hounds do, but on a 6' leash, they can't go too far.

Well-behaved dogs are fine with just about everyone, if they have well-behave owners, too.

[randome]

4. A web cam and a small sign might have done the trick.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]A ton of bricks, a ton of feathers, it's still gonna hurt.[/center][/font][hr]

[GGJohn]

10. He has put signs up which have been largely ignored.

Can't really blame the guy, it's frustrating when irresponsible pet owners don't respect other's property.

[GGJohn]

5. Here's a thought,

if you complainers don't want your dogs to get sick, KEEP THEM OFF OF THE NEIGHBOR'S PROPERTY!!!!

[UglyGreed]

6. I have had dogs all my life

I do not let them run loose, I do not let them bark like mad and I never leave poop behind. I see it as a golden rule sort of thing.

[GGJohn]

13. You are a responsible pet owner. eom.

[peacebird]

8. Bingo! Our dog is always with us if he is outside. When we are traveling we have a little green

Puppy poopy bag dispenser on his leash and we always clean up after him. I hate it when lazy dog owners leave the poo behind.

[GGJohn]

14. Agreed, and thank you for being a responsible pet owner. eom.

[SwissTony]

49. Our dog is never allowed out of our yard unaccompanied.

We always carry poop bags. We clean up.

It's not difficult, folks.

Do unto others...

[logosoco]

7. Won't he get ants now?

says a dog walker who always cleans up after the dog!!!!

[peacebird]

9. They don't make as much of a mess if you step on them, and they don't stink....

[Brickbat]

11. Is that what you want? Because that's how you get ants!

[randome]

12. Or worse: Keebler elves! Once an infestation starts, you can't get rid of them!

[hr][font color="blue"][center]A ton of bricks, a ton of feathers, it's still gonna hurt.[/center][/font][hr]

[yellowcanine]

15. Poop can be picked up, pee is another problem.

[Myrina]

16. How 'bout he just fences his yard? Or stops being an a-hole?

This guy sounds like a Grade A douche nozzle and maybe if he weren't such a jerk, pet parents would be more inclined to cooperate.

I walk my dogs for exercise & socialization because they've been stuck in the house for 10 hours while I'm at work. I always carry poo bags and in fact pick up 'stray' poo I find when I'm walking my dogs - I'm sick of getting yelled at because other dog parents are irresponsible.

There is a guy in my 'hood who bitched at me because one of my elderly dogs watered his mailbox post - yes, a 4x4 piece of wood. I was tempted to make a midnight visit to his yard with a gallon of RoundUp & spray a message onto his lawn. Oh, and what about the neighbors that bitch out the window when you DO pick up the poo, and put the knotted bag into the garbage can sitting on the curb the night before garbage pickup?

I have some dickwads like that in my 'hood. Makes ya' want to let your dog leave massive steaming puddles of diahrrea all over the place.

[snooper2]

20. LOL, he's an asshole for some chocolate chips, but you want to spray a gallon of roundup

[MindPilot]

63. Unfortunately the Roundup trick doesn't work so well anymore...

Lawn is probably already half-dead and brown from lack of water.

[Throd]

24. You put your dog's shit in other people's cans?

[bigwillq]

33. Why should he have to spend money on a fence

when irresponsible and rude pet owners are letting their dogs roam onto someone else's property? This is not his problem.

[City Lights]

41. Very telling post. nt

[Sunlei]

56. In most places in the usa it is against the law to fence the front yard.

[Orsino]

17. Wow. Poison and bait, all in one.

Asshole.

[ProfessorGAC]

18. For Little Dogs Yes

The amount of chocolate it takes to hurt a dog is dependent upon weight. A big beastie like my doggie would have to eat an awful lot of chocolate chips. My dog would have to eat 5 pounds of chocolate, per below.

A snip from PetMD.
Milk Chocolate – Mild signs of toxicity can occur when 0.7 ounces per pound of body weight is ingested; severe toxicity occurs when two ounces per pound of body weight is ingested (or as little as one pound of milk chocolate for a 20-pound dog).
Semi-Sweet Chocolate – Mild signs of toxicity can occur when 0.3 ounce per pound of body weight is ingested; severe toxicity occurs when one ounce per pound of body weight is ingested (or as little as six ounces of semi-sweet chocolate for a 20-pound dog).
Baking Chocolate – This type of chocolate has the highest concentration of caffeine and theobromine. Therefore, as little as two small one-ounce squares of baking chocolate can be toxic to a 20-pound dog (or 0.1 ounce per pound of body weight).

[UglyGreed]

22. My kids have left their candy bars

unattended at times and my dogs did help themselves, they survived to steal other types of food from them over the years

[winter is coming]

32. The most common type of chocolate chips are semi-sweet.

The math given isn't right. .3 ounce of chocolate per pound is 6 oz for mild signs of toxicity in a 20lb dog. Severe toxicity (1 oz per pound) for a 20lb dog would be 20 oz.

Six ounces of chocolate chips is one cup. Twenty ounces is 3-1/3 cups. I find it unlikely that a leashed dog is going to scarf down even a one cup of chocolate chips before an attentive owner notices, and 3 cups? No.

[ProfessorGAC]

35. I Think You're Taking Their Write Up Too Literally

I think they're just giving people a general gauge and it seems they're targeting the mild toxicity. So, 0.7 ounces ounce per pound of body weight is 14 ounces for a 20 pounds dog. So, they said a pound which is a little higher than that, but still well below the severe range.

Either way, it is quite a lot of chocolate for an owner to just stand there and watch a dog eat.

[hobbit709]

38. If it's Hershey's there's very little REAL chocolate in it.

[ProfessorGAC]

59. Very Good!

Well played.

[UglyGreed]

21. let me add I

do not agree to what this man has done at all. I would never harm anyone's pet. But I do feel it is my responsibility to not cause anyone harm or distress by my actions or the actions of my pet.

[ProfessorGAC]

23. Same Here

My dog goes IN MY YARD. If i taking him for a little walk, i make sure he goes in the yard and then we leave. The only other place he does his business is at the dog park, and i pick up after him there.

[Ligyron]

25. this is anecdotal but...

One Halloween, with all the candy around that this celebration requires, our Jack Russel managed to knock off a table, open and then consume an entire bag of Hershey's Kisses.

The give away was the dozens of foil wrappers scattered about the living room.

In spite of what we knew about dogs and chocolate that 15 lb animal showed no ill effects whatsoever. Of course, we called our Vet and took him in immediately since it was about time for his annual anyway, but he was as hail and hardy as always.

Those Jack Russels are one tough breed.

[justamama83]

28. Almost the same thing happened to us....

Had a newly adopted dog- and I did not doggie proof the tables- had a bowl of M&Ms- the 5lb bag size- she at them all- no ill effects- called the vet and they told us what to watch for and when to bring her in- but she never had any adverse reaction.

[NutmegYankee]

50. The poison is in the cocoa.

Most US chocolate is so sugared up that there isn't a lot of poison per oz. European dark chocolate on the other hand is very dangerous.

[pugetres]

54. How'd your dog unwrap them??

Kidding. Sort of.

One easter, my oldest son left a pound bag of foiled wrapped chocolate eggs on a low table and our lab found them.

Came home to an empty bag of chocolate. There were no ill effects from the candy but I was on edge for days waiting for all that foil to safely pass. The dog had already had surgery for a bowel obstruction because she liked to eat pine cones - whole.

[Ligyron]

60. I wish I knew

I really would like to have seen him do it, but yeah... he definitely swallowed a lot of the foil as evidenced by the amount coming out the other end over the next day or so.

I learned a lot about dogs and chocolate thru this experience and years later, at Halloween time once again, my girlfriend's Boxer polished off a goodly amount of chocolate candies of various sizes and shape and he suffered no ill effects either. Of course he was a much larger canine at 80 lbs., so....

[Snobblevitch]

26. This reminds me of a story I read several years ago.

It might be an urban legend however.

A man drove to his widowed mother's house once a week to mow her lawn. He brought his lawn mower and a 5 gallon can of gas with him in the back of his pickup. After he was done mowing, he would spend a of couple hours inside the house visiting with his mother.

After a while, it seemed to him that gasoline was missing from his gas can. The next time he mowed the lawn, he went inside the house but kept watch at a window. Sure enough, a couple of teenagers from across the street parked in front of his mother's house, grabbed the gas can, and poured it into the tank of their car. The next week, the same thing happened. The next time he saw the teens, the man told them to leave the stuff alone that was in the back of his truck. Well, once again, they put his gas into their car's tank. Tired of this, the man filled up the 5 gallon can with gas but also added a couple cups of sugar. He left the gas can in the back of his pickup, mowed the grass and went inside. A few hours later, he saw tbe teens pushing their car down the street.

[SwissTony]

46. Might not just be a legend.

About 30+ years ago, a friend who lived in a small country town called Gumeracha (love the name) in South Australia told me this story. The local cops were annoyed because someone seemed to be stealing petrol ("gas" to Americans) from a tank by the police station. It's a small town so everybody knew about it and knew who was doing it. But, of course, there was no proof. So, when the tank was getting a little empty, the cops put some water into it.

That night, there was another case of petrol being stolen. The next day, somebody had a severely non-functioning engine. And it was the guy everybody knew was stealing the petrol.

Sympathy was in very short supply for the guy.

[Snobblevitch]

53. He was lucky it was water.

[backscatter712]

27. About as classy as poisoning dogs with antifreeze.

What a scumbag. I'm with those for putting a message on his lawn using herbicide...

[Reter]

29. How could anyone complain if it's his property?

Could a robber complain if something in your fridge is mislabeled and he gets an allergic reaction?

[3catwoman3]

40. I once read about a would be robber who fell thru a skylight...

...and broke his leg and proceeded to sue the homeowners for his injury, so your scenario could probably happen.

[Orrex]

58. I'm going to call that story false until someone can provide a link

I've heard that one a bunch of times, and I've never seen a link to the actual case.

[hughee99]

64. Here's some info about the case, but I don't have court transcripts or anything...

The case is Bodine v. Enterprise High School

It wasn't a homeowner, though, it was a school.

http://overlawyered.com/2006/09/the-burglar-and-the-skylight-another-debunking-that-isnt/
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~faracid/pubs/liability.pdf

[Orrex]

66. Well how about that!

I swear, in all the times that I've heard this story mentioned, no one has ever provided the actual story.

Thanks!

[bigwillq]

30. Good for him.

No one's dog should be on his property.

[PowerToThePeople]

34. I agree

Some ahole neighbour of mine was letting his dog come over and shit in my yard. I set a live trap with some raw meat to catch it and take it to the pound. Dog has stopped coming over. I wonder if the trap caught it while I was away and the owner found it, got it out.

I still have a bunch of shit in my yard. My plan is to shovel it up, find the place the dog came from and dump it all on his front porch.

[bigwillq]

36. Neighbors on both sides of me let their dogs roam free all the time

and they poop and pee in my yard. We've talked to them about it on multiple occasions. One has a portion of their yard fenced in, the other has no fence at all. This is irresponsible and rude of these pet owners. I don't know if I necessarily agree with this man's method in the OP, but I 100 percent agree with him taking action to protect his property.

[KamaAina]

37. Is "John" aware that chocolate is toxic to dogs?

[Skittles]

44. of course he is

[KamaAina]

61. Well, you know what to do

to his ass.

[3catwoman3]

39. A couple of years ago, we got new...

...next door neighbors. Thoughtless in many ways. The husband mows his lawn at 9 PM. He starts major outdoor DIY projects at 7 AM. Their little girls have one of those noisy motorized cars that they drive across our front lawn.


They have a HUGE German shepherd who regularly leave his huge deposits just over the property line on our side. Same thing at the neighbors on the other side. We do not have a dog, and neither do the other neighbors, so we know with certainty that our families are not making any contribution to the mess.

This has been brought to the attention of the dog owner repeatedly. One of his solutions was that we should go out with little flags and marks the piles so he would know where to come and clean up. Um - no. Your dog, your responsibility to know where he has been. Just 2 days ago, the wife tried to blame it on "all the other dogs that are running loose." There is a leash law. There are no dogs running loose except theirs.

I fantasize about taking on of our cat boxes and dumping it on their lawn just to make a point. I won't, because that's not my style, but it is a satisfying fantasy.

[DetlefK]

45. Pick the shit up, put it in a bag and give it to him.

[dsc]

42. Is chocolate poisonous to other animals like squirells etc

[magical thyme]

55. dark chocolate, yes.

He's also inviting mice and rats into his yard.

Chocolate contains a powerful stimulant called theobromine (similar to caffeine) which is poisonous to rodents. Dark chocolate and cocoa contain high levels of theobromine.
Rodents may become unsteady on their legs, have rapid breathing, tremors or convulsions.
http://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/pets/rodents/poisoning/common

[Nye Bevan]

48. The beauty of this is, pretty soon he won't need the chocolate chips at all.

Just the belief that they are there will cause owners to keep their pets away.

[unblock]

51. in the same way armed robbery is beautiful, i mean, you don't even need ammo?

[Oneironaut]

52. This guy is going to get wild animals.

If anyone did that here, they would get raccoons and coyotes out the arse. Anything left outside over night gets instantly destroyed - living or dead.

[Sunlei]

57. all the rats and wild critters will love his yard

[MindPilot]

62. This is my neighborhood...it is generally very dog-friiendly.

Almost everybody has dogs, and it is really pretty rare for someone to not clean up after their dogs. We do have very strict leash laws. Nobody ever lets their dog run loose, if I see an unleashed dog, it's a sure bet the pup got loose, and there is an owner right there running after it. My own dogs have escaped and neighbors took care of them until they could find me, and I've done the same for others. We really have little tolerance for people who would try to poison dogs.

This guy is a jackhole making a big deal out of nothing. And when the drought is killing your lawn anyway, who gives a shit if there a little poop in the grass?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

65. Is he attempting to replace dogs with children?