Building a Better World for Pigeons

We are a Community Interest Company  (a not for profit business) supporting pigeons through fundraising and advocacy.

Fundraising: The proceeds from sales on our website and in our shop support UK-based pigeon, bird and wildlife sanctuaries by providing food, medication and payment of veterinary bills.

Advocacy: We advocate for pigeons by talking at events and festivals. Our main cause is highlighting the plight of feral pigeons and trying to change the way the general public see these birds. We are also working on a complete ban on pigeon racing in the UK in the next 20 years.

Meet the Flock

Susan Joyce, Founder

Sue has been vegetarian since aged 8 and a vegan for the last 15 years. Her love for birds was inspired by her hundreds of hours of  bird watching with her son who was bird mad from a young age. 

Sue has founded:

• Little Green Pigeon Community Interest Company,

• The National Pigeon Advocacy Association

• and The Animal Rights Choir

Sue has been a lifelong animal rights activist, dedicating her entire life to the protection and advocacy of animals. During her career in veterinary care, she became acutely aware of the widespread abuse and neglect suffered by pigeons. This led her to run a bird sanctuary for 15 years, which organically evolved into a dedicated pigeon sanctuary. Initially funded from her own wages, the sanctuary later became supported by 'Little Green Pigeon' a Community Interest Company established in 2020.

In 2024, the birds in Sue’s care were safely rehomed to other sanctuaries, with Little Green Pigeon continuing to fund their care. This transition allowed Sue to focus fully on public advocacy. She now travels across the UK, speaking at events and festivals, delivering her powerful talk, “Why We Need to Love Pigeons” and gaining support for her movement to ban Pigeon Racing in the UK. 

In December 2024, Sue founded Harper’s Fund, with the ambitious goal of supporting the care of thousands of pigeons within the next decade. That same year, she also launched the National Pigeon Advocacy Association and began planning the world’s first veterinary-led international advocacy conference for pigeons, set to take place in Staffordshire in September 2025. The conference will aim to educate and empower more people to care for these often-overlooked birds.

Sue is also a founding member of the Vegan Business Mastermind, alongside Keith Lesser, and co-hosts The Bloody Vegans Podcast with Jim Moore. In June 2025, together with Vegan Queen V, she co-founded the International Animal Rights Choir (ARC) — an online and in-person choir that sings songs of joy and activism, helping people find their voice for the animals.

 Matt O'Leary

Matt worked as a zoo keeper for many years in the conservation sector - before realising that he didn't agree with the industry at all! He went vegan overnight and has never looked back. 

Matt joined Little Green Pigeon in 2023. He manages a restaurant in Cardigan and helps in the shop on his days off. He performs public speaking with Sue where possible and was an essential part of the last year of working with the birds in the sanctuary. 

 Gretchen 

Gretchen joined LGP in 2024 to assist in the sanctuary shop. She has been vegan for the last 4 years.

She lives locally and works part time as a people and wildlife officer for the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales. 

She wears amazing dungarees and is lots of fun and puts up with Sues post caffeine nonsense! 

Anwen

Anwen joined the team in 2025 and working in the shop 2 days a week. 

Our Story: From Sanctuary to Support 

2017: Seeing the need

Our founder, Sue, worked for 15 years as a Registered Veterinary Nurse in several veterinary practices.

In 2010, she opened one of the first dog daycare centres in the UK in Staffordshire, where she and her staff looked after 30 dogs each day - this was her dream business! After several happy years, a fall from a bridge fractured her back and forced her to close this business.

She returned to work at a veterinary hospital, working near reception as a patient co-ordinator.

Here she saw the extent of care needed for wild birds and pigeons. Clients brought them in for help, only to be turned away.

2013: The sanctuary begins

Sue began to care for garden birds in her home and garden and eventually in 2018 she obtained some land and opened an official bird sanctuary.

Sue had one staff member and 2 volunteers who between them cared for thousands of birds each year. She quickly learned that pigeons were a little different to garden birds physiologically and also with their long term care requirements, so in 2020 she became a pigeon only sanctuary - working alongside another local sanctuary who took the garden birds for her. 

2022: The move to Wales

In 2022, Sue got divorced and lost her home, so she began to live in a motorhome on the sanctuary land.  3 months later, that land was put up for sale by the owner and Sue could not raise the funds to purchase, so the sanctuary faced closure. An amazing lady offered land in Carmarthenshire in Wales.

Sue and hundreds of resident pigeons moved out to live on a hillside in Wales. Storm damage and zoning issues forced the sanctuary to move twice more in the next two years, staying in Wales.

In the final location, relentless rain caused further problems. After exhausting the search for more land locally, a decision was made to close the sanctuary and relocate the birds in their care. 

2024: New method, same mission

Little Green Pigeon C.I.C. evolved into a fundraising and educating not for profit, helping other sanctuaries in the UK with funding and advocating for pigeons.

The current focus is educating the general public on the exploitative nature of pigeon racing and working with wildlife and vegan organisations to obtain a ban on this horrendous 'sport'.

This information on this page was put together and edited on our behalf by the wonderful Cleoniki Kesidis, a copywriter, at no cost to us. 

You can find her at www.cekcopywriting.com