St. Joseph, Mo. ? The billboard planned for Interstate 229 sounds inoffensive enough: A picture of a nursing child and a message promoting breast-feeding.

But the infant in question is the Christ child, shown being breast-fed by his mother, Mary. And the message isn’t just pro-breast-feeding, it’s anti-milk.

Anti-cow’s milk, that is.

Dairy and religious groups alike are questioning the billboard, a project of the animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

It contains the phrase, “If it was good enough for Jesus,” in large type followed by “The breast is best DumpDairy.com” in smaller text.

PETA already has put up the same message in Jackson, Miss., and is scheduled to have its billboard placed in St. Joseph this week. The group said it chose St. Joseph because PETA believes the city was named after Mary’s husband.

PETA realizes that using a religious image could be offensive, said Bruce Friedrich, director of vegan outreach for the organization.

However, he said, “It’s more offensive that cows are being abused and mothers are misled to feed milk to their children.”

Officials from the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph said they weren’t offended by the image of Mary breast-feeding so much as its use to make a political statement.

“I think people would find that offensive,” said Tony Butel of the diocese’s center for pastoral life and ministry. “I think rather than help their cause, it will hurt their cause.”

Butel and Rebecca Summers, a spokeswoman for the diocese, said they wouldn’t be offended if the image of Mary breast-feeding was in an art museum solely to depict the human nature of Jesus.

“I do have some concerns about this,” Summers said. “There’s a concern about using something that’s very sacred in our tradition to make such a direct political statement.”

Farmers and dairy industry officials oppose PETA’s anti-milk message.

The dairy industry agrees that children under the age of 12 months should be breast-fed or given fortified formula, said Kathleen Cuddy, nutrition and public relations manager for the Midwest Dairy Assn. in Kansas City, Mo.

PETA’s anti-milk campaign, however, is based more on an animal-rights agenda than nutrition, Cuddy said.

“People should follow the advice of their health professional and not listen to animal-rights groups,” she said.

Friedrich said PETA wanted people to stop drinking milk because cows on dairy farms were treated like milk machines.

“There’s a serious dark underbelly to this industry,” he said.

Dan Hegeman, a dairy producer from Cosby, said cows were designed to give milk.

“We do everything we can to make those animals comfortable,” Hegeman said.

Dr. Michelle Cebulko, a St. Joseph pediatrician, said there was some truth to the belief that breast-feeding was healthier for an infant. But that doesn’t mean milk-based formula puts a baby in danger, she said.

“We can’t say formula is better or even as good, but we can’t say a baby will have problems from formula,” Cebulko said. “We really like that they do breast-feed. We don’t try to make them.”