Rebecca Reid of Voices for Animals of Western Pennsylvania crouched down on the bank of the Monongahela River in South Side's Riverfront Park yesterday afternoon and picked up a lead sinker used by anglers.

"They'll swallow that," Ms. Reid, 47, of Manchester, said, referring to the mallard ducks and Canada geese as well as other animals who populate the park.

A couple of minutes later, she picked up a sharp fishing hook -- a danger not just to the waterfowl, but also to the children and dogs who gambol on the riverbank.

"Why would you leave stuff like that?" she asked rhetorically.

Then came a tangle of unbreakable monofilament fishing line -- the biggest hazard of all. About six weeks ago, she said, a group member found a dead gull in the river that had strangled in tangled line.

North Park is even worse when it comes to abandoned tangles of fishing line, Ms. Reid said.

"There are geese and ducks missing legs because they've gotten caught in the microfilament and can't break it," she said. "The ducks can get away with that, but it's basically a death sentence for the geese."

Cleaning up the shore of Riverfront Park was just one of two goals that the dozen group members had during a three-hour event there yesterday.

The second and arguably more important goal was teaching people not to feed the ducks and geese. They handed out explanatory brochures titled "Please Don't Feed the Waterfowl / It Can Kill Them."

"This isn't even a busy day," Ms. Reid said, as she watched about a dozen geese scoop up pieces of bread that a family with young children had tossed into the river earlier. "Mid-week, you'll see 50 to 75 geese hanging out." Senior men come daily to feed them, she added.

"It shouldn't be that way naturally," she said, explaining that a flock that size is too large for the territory. "The reason they're here is that people feed them. ...

"People think they're doing a good deed, but they're not. Not only because they are overcrowded, but it's making them unpopular with big business across the river."

Last year, the Regional Industrial Development Corp. on the other side of the Mon paid the U.S. Department of Agriculture to kill a number of the geese, according to documents the group obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

And the feeding of foods like bread creates other problems.

"Their nutrition is very bad," Ms. Reid said. "It's not a healthy diet and it also can cause delayed migration."

Since the USDA action, some "Please do not feed the ducks and geese" signs have gone up in the park, she said. But her group would like signs that not only instruct but also educate. As an example, it cites the "no feeding" sign used by the Dallas Park and Recreation Department:

"No thanks," is on the first line of the sign in big letters.

"We just ate," reads the second.

Fortunately, Ms. Reid said, "the county does seem to be making an effort" to handle its waterfowl overpopulation in a humane way. Allegheny County has said there will be no lethal methods used this year.

Voices for Animals also has been in contact with the RIDC, explaining a humane population control system pioneered by a group called GeesePeace. For example, waterfowl like lawns that are mowed short all over, but avoid higher grasses because they know predators can hide in them. To minimize waterfowl camping out in the RIDC lawns, the grass could be alternately short and long in stretches.

Still, individuals need to be educated too.

Late in the cleanup, Ms. Reid approached a couple with young children who were feeding the waterfowl.

"I tried to explain why they shouldn't feed the birds," she said, "but they carried on feeding and feeding and feeding."