Former Edinburgh zookeeper Lisa O’Hara is suing her former employers, claiming colleagues subjected to “degrading” treatment and “excessive scrutiny” due to her ADHD.
Lisa O’Hara was a zookeeper at Edinburgh Zoo
An ex-keeper is suing Edinburgh Zoo bosses over alleged discrimination and “humiliation” she faced at work as a result of her ADHD. Lisa O’Hare appeared at the Edinburgh Employment Tribunal on December 1.
She claimed she was subjected to “degrading” treatment and “excessive scrutiny” aimed at “constructing a case against” her. Ms O’Hara resigned from her post in February 2025 after starting in the role less than a year prior in April 2024.
The 36-year-old alleged she was “excluded” from the team. Alongside this, she says she was denied reasonable adjustments and that superiors made repeated critical comments about her disability, reports Edinburgh Live.
Ms O’Hara was assigned to care for primates at Edinburgh Zoo and the court heard she had difficulty identifying individual capuchin monkeys due to her ADHD, which her superior took issue with. Zoo bosses claimed identifying individual animals is a vital part of a keeper’s job to ensure animal health and wellbeing.
Edinburgh Zoo(Image: SNS Group)
Court documents showed Callum Gibson, Ms O’Hara’s superior, said: “You have to start taking responsibility for yourself with training. It is not the rest of the team’s responsibility to help you with this. There is only so much I can do to support this before you need to take ownership and communicate with others”.
Ms O’Hara told the court: “I just didn’t feel, given how it was a particular problem for my disability” how there couldn’t be more flexibility, adding: “I felt it was unequally applied to me than others” and “there were other individuals” on the team who could identify the capuchins.
She also alleged her colleague Kenna Valles repeatedly made critical statements regarding her timekeeping ability. In one instance, documents showed Ms Valles allegedly said “I’m just waiting on Lisa” in a “sardonic” tone. Ms O’Hara felt this showed her co-worker was “outwardly expressing annoyance with my disability and related difficulties with timekeeping” and “mocking my disability [and related issues] with timekeeping and hyper focus” resulting in “negative treatment and frustrations”.
She alleged another co-worker, Deborah Mason, told her: “It would be good if you could mask [your ADHD]”, which Ms O’Hara felt was “discriminatory” and “degrading”. According to documents, Callum Gibson claimed Ms Mason was “referring to the inappropriate behaviour [Ms O’Hara] had displayed to [other colleagues] in the past and how this couldn’t continue” and not that she needed to “hide who you are as a person”.
Ms O’Hara stated in documents: “Me and my brain are not separate entities” and Mr Gibson displayed a “lack of understanding” and “demonstrated that current disability awareness training practices are inadequate”.
The zookeeper also felt she was excluded from the team due to her colleagues’ “frustration with my ADHD and the consequences of my symptoms”. She described being left to eat alone on one occasion and feeling “ostracised and humiliated”. A solicitor representing the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, owners of the zoo, mentioned that five employees had lodged complaints against Ms O’Hara.
Ms O’Hara further accused her employers of subjecting her to “unnecessary” scrutiny. She referred to an instance where she claimed to be investigated via CCTV for being one minute late for work.
She raised concerns about health and safety issues at the zoo, particularly around best practice while using ladders. The zookeeper felt she was subjected to worse treatment after raising safety problems.
Ms O’Hara told the court: “How am I to keep a job in such a vulnerable position? I tried to adapt, fix, and change.”
The proceedings are presided over by Employment Judge B Campbell. The tribunal continues.
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