Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
Regular readers of this blog will be aware of my interest in philosophical beliefs and whether these are capable of protection in terms of the Equality Act 2010. It seems to be an area of law which is being developed on a fairly regular basis – often with pretty surprising results.
The Employment Tribunal decided, for example, in Hashman v Milton Park (Dorset) Ltd t/a Orchard Park ET /3105555/2009 that a belief in the sanctity of both human and animal life could constitute a legally protected philosophical belief.
Several of my previous entries have looked at whether veganism could be a philosophical belief. This issue could soon be decided by the outcome of an Employment Tribunal case lodged at the end of 2018 (Casamitjana v League Against Cruel Sports).
What about anti-veganism? To be honest I’d never heard of this before, but a story on Sky News caught my attention:
Veganism is human cruelty’: Protester eats raw pig’s head outside vegan festival
http://news.sky.com/story/protester-eats-raw-pigs-head-outside-vegan-festival-11674741
A YouTuber going by the name of Sv3rige ate a pig’s head outside Vegfest, a vegan festival in Brighton to draw attention to his belief that “veganism is human cruelty”.
Sv3rige’s explained his motivation to Sky News:
“We did it – it was eight of us – because veganism is malnutrition and you can’t get over 15 nutrients from plants and some of us are ex-vegans who got sick because of it.”
A crass publicity stunt or a genuine attempt to highlight someone’s deeply held beliefs?
Food for thought indeed!
Copyright Seán J Crossan, 26 March 2019
Seán Crossan's Scots Law 