AN animal lover who vainly tried to give a duck the kiss of life has warned of the dangers of feeding birds bread.

Volunteer co-ordinator Charlotte Foster was called to help save the dying duck, found choking on dry bread by the canal at Coach Street in Skipton last week.

Charlotte, a trained first-aider, dashed from the nearby Craven Voluntary Action office and went through the same motions she would have done with a human being.

She found the mallard coughing up bread in the Coach Street car park and tried the "ABC" of resuscitation.

She explained: "The duck just could not get any air. I just tried everything you would with a person, cleared its airways, checked for bleeding and circulation, the ABC of first aid. I put my mouth over it's bill to try to get some air into it but nothing worked.

"With a human you could try the Heimlich manoeuvre to dislodge the blockage. But the bread someone had given it had obviously expanded in its throat.

"If any good can come of this it should be to make people aware that ducks and birds shouldn't be fed dried bread."

An RSPB spokesman said: "There are a lot of problems with bread because it swells in the gizzard when the duck takes in water.

"Another danger food is rice, for the same reasons. The safest thing to feed them is grain because it's what they eat naturally and pet shops sell wheat grain very cheaply."

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