Many of us maintain our yards partly for the health and enjoyment of our pets. It seems ironic that lawn and garden hazards formed more than 16 percent of calls to the Animal Poison Control Center at the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals last year.

Consider these numbers:

— Insecticides resulted in 15,000 calls or 9.1 percent of the total. ASPCA lists snail bait with metaldehyde, fly bait with methomyl, and systemic insecticides with disyston or disulfoton among the most troubling.

— Rodenticides, which are made to kill mice and rats, resulted in more than 7,500 calls to the APCC last year or 4.5 percent of the total. According to the ASPCA website, mole or gopher bait with zinc phosphide and most forms of rat poison are the most dangerous.

—Other lawn and garden products resulted in 4,500 calls to the APCC (2.7 percent). Many exposures occur because people do not store lawn and garden products in sealed containers out of pets’ reach. Other exposures happen when pets are allowed to re-enter an area before treatments have dried.

The ASPCA’s Animal Poison Control Center (APCC), headquartered in Urbana, Ill., handled more than 167,000 cases in 2014 altogether. The single largest source of calls, by the way, is human prescription medications. See www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control for more information.

Dr. Suzanne Magruder at Saybrook Veterinary Hospital in Old Saybrook says they have occasion to call the Animal Poison Control Center a few times each month.

“Our pets explore the world like a lot young children do,” she says. “But in a lot of ways they’re harder to keep safe. Pets are stronger and more agile. They can chew right through bags and boxes or jump to out-of-reach hiding places.”

She points out that mulch can be dangerous to dogs if consumed in large amounts.

“Cocoa mulch can be especially dangerous,” she says. “The same chemical in chocolate that is poisonous to dogs is also in this type of mulch.” (Cocoa mulch is different from coir, a by-product of coconuts.)

Likewise, she says animals should be kept separate from compost piles, so they don’t eat moldy or partially decomposed food.

According to Patrick Comins, director of bird conservation at Audubon Connecticut, birds do not fare well either in the lawn and garden department.

“They can be directly and indirectly exposed,” he says. “Some birds scavenge for grit and pick up a granule of pesticide. But the bigger threat comes when they ingest a poisoned insect or rodent, or they drink or bathe in water with chemical runoff.”

Comins recalls the findings from post-mortems on birds at New York state’s wildlife pathology laboratory during a West Nile Virus outbreak in 2007.

“After receiving more than 80,000 carcasses, the scientists discovered that while the virus was a factor in some of the deaths, the leading cause was pesticide poisoning. Lawn care chemicals were among the most common toxins,” he says.

Comins also cites a U.S. Fish and Wildlife study that attributes an estimated seven million bird deaths each year to homeowner use of pesticides.

“It is ironic,” he says, “that rodent control chemicals are a major threat to birds of prey. In Connecticut, this means owls and hawks. Yet both of these birds are very effective at controlling rodent populations.”

Pet owners can get a new mobile app that helps identify dangerous materials, toxic and non-toxic plants, potentially harmful medications, and problems that affect animals in cold and hot weather. Called “APCC by ASPCA”, the download is free for iPhone and Android users. Visit the Apple App Store or Google Play.

The app gives one-touch access to the ASPCA’s Animal Poison Control Center hotline, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. If your pet ingests something suspicious, call your vet or call the hotline at 1-888-426-4435.

Kathy Connolly is a landscape designer, garden writer and speaker from Old Saybrook. Find her on Facebook and at www.SpeakingofLandscapes.com.