Yes , it was reported that there was one case of a dog 's death after drinking some water that cycad seed had be soaking for many days located in New Guinea about 40 years ago. I soak mine for many days before cleaning the outer peeling off the seeds and it smells like it would kill anyone, but I have two dogs and have never worried about it, and I clean thousands of cycad seed every year. I grow over 100 species of cycads......and only three or four species get the "Aulacaspis scale" and it is controlled if you spray a good insecticide every 6 months and spray often with a pressure sprayer. (That's what I do) and I might say very sucessfully.) But there are well over 200 species of cycads that don't get Aulacaspis scale....that you should seriously consider growing. You cannot tell the gender (male or female) of any cycad usually until it gets fully mature and produces a cone........unless you remove a "basil pup" (or sucker) from an older mature cycad that has produced a cone ... then the pup will be an identical clone of the mother plant (male or female) which ever it is. Robert Chumley
Chumley Cycads Specializing In Artificially Propagated Cycads