Vegans don't eat, wear or use animal products, but that's a moral philosophical practice, not a religion, a state appellate court ruled Friday.

Thus, the court said, vegans can't sue for religious discrimination.

In the nation's first known ruling on the issue, the three-judge Court of Appeal panel in Los Angeles threw out a lawsuit by a vegan who claimed he was denied a job because he refused a mumps vaccine that was grown in chicken embryos.

Jerold Friedman, a computer programmer who lives in Hawthorne southwest of Los Angeles, said accepting the vaccine would have violated his religious belief that all animal species are equal and deserve equal treatment.

"I no longer believe," he said Friday, "that because somebody is born as a frog or a human, one of them gets preferential treatment." Religion, Friedman said, "means that selfless dedication to something that we believe is right."

But in a 41-page ruling that surveyed decades of past cases on religious issues, the court said a religious creed must address "fundamental and ultimate questions having to do with deep and imponderable matters."

A belief in a supreme being is not required; the Supreme Court has granted conscientious objector status to atheists who said their moral and spiritual opposition to killing was equivalent to a religion. Courts have also given religious recognition to a wide range of beliefs, like that of a minister who said his Christian faith included white supremacy.

But the appellate court said veganism does not meet the test, even though Friedman says it shapes his entire way of life and view of the world.

"There is no apparent spiritual or otherworldly component to (Friedman's) beliefs," wrote Presiding Justice Paul Turner. He said those beliefs do not address "the meaning of human existence; the purpose of life; theories of humankind's nature or its place in the universe; matters of human life and death, or the exercise of faith."

The absence of religious ceremonies, teachers or leaders, holidays and other conventions was further evidence that Friedman's veganism is "a moral and secular, rather than religious, philosophy," Turner said.

The court's view "reflects the old traditional model of religion," said Friedman, who plans to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

As a dietary practice, veganism goes a step beyond vegetarian abstention from meat, chicken or fish; vegans won't consume milk, eggs or honey, either. They also won't wear leather or silk derived from animals or use products that have been tested on animals.

Friedman, 33, said he became a vegan about 12 years ago after dropping out of veterinary school. Working through a temporary agency, he had landed a computer job at a Kaiser pharmacy warehouse in Downey in 1998 when he was offered a permanent job with Kaiser. The position, he said, did not involve contact with patients or health workers, but the company required a mumps vaccine. When he refused to be vaccinated, Kaiser withdrew the offer, he said.

Friday's ruling upheld a Superior Court judge's dismissal of Friedman's discrimination suit. A lawyer for Kaiser declined comment.