Animal rights activist Joe Hashman made legal history on 8 March by establishing that employers should not discriminate against people for holding anti-hunting beliefs. Joe was sacked from Orchard Park Garden Centre in Dorset in September 2009, just as celebrity chef Clarissa Dickson Wright was convicted of attending an illegal hare coursing event – as the result of Joe’s covert filming.
The owners of Orchard Park Garden Centre, Sheila and Ron Clarke, keen supporters of the South and West Wiltshire Hunt, claim that his dismissal had nothing to do with his anti-hunting activism. Judge Lawrence Guyer said at the employment tribunal that Joe’s belief in the sanctity of life extended to his “fervent anti-foxhunting belief (and also anti-hare-coursing belief)” and that such beliefs “constitute a philosophical belief for the purposes of the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003.” Joe’s case for unfair dismissal will now proceed at a later date.
Topics: Animal rights