Playboy pin-up Joanna Krupa's new PETA ad showing her wearing nothing but a crucifix has attracted the wrath of critics. They have called the advertisement totally inappropriate and exploitative of Christian symbols.

The Polish-born beauty appears in the ad with angel wings behind her and a digital halo over her head. Her private parts are covered barely by a large, well-placed metallic crucifix.

"It's totally inappropriate," Fox News quoted Deal Hudson, publisher of InsideCatholic.com, an online magazine, as saying."It's another instance of disrespect toward Christianity and another example of the kind of abuse that would never occur with any other major religion, because the outcry would be so immediate and so loud that the people behind it would immediately retreat," Hudson added.

Krupa led a protest on Dec 1 outside Barkworks, a Los Angeles pet store, that PETA says 'irresponsibly' sells puppies while hundreds of dogs remain in city animal shelters.

"The fact is that cats and dogs are a lot safer in pet stores than they are in the hands of PETA employees," Catholic League President Bill Donohue said in a statement.

"Moreover, pet stores don't rip off Christian iconography and engage in cheap irreligious claims. PETA is a fraud. It also has a long and disgraceful record of exploiting Christian and Jewish themes to hawk its ugly services. Those who support this organization sorely need a reality check. They also need a course in Ethics 101," Donohue added.

Krupa issued a statement responding to the Catholic League, saying: "As a practicing Catholic, I am shocked that the Catholic League is speaking out against my PETA ads. I'm doing what the Catholic Church should be doing, working to stop senseless suffering of animals, the most defenseless of God's creation."