Cindy Crawford branded a 'heartless hypocrite'

Cindy Crawford has been branded a "heartless hypocrite" by furious anti-cruelty campaigners for becoming the face of a fur designer.

The supermodel who once famously claimed she would rather go naked than wear the skins of animals, is now fronting a mink coat advert for America's Blackglama fashion house.

A decade ago, Crawford openly campaigned against the fur trade by posing naked in billboard ads and even signed a petition with a string of catwalk beauties including Claudia Schiffer and Kate Moss.

But her publicist now says the model never took a stand against fur - a claim which has sparked anti-cruelty campaigners PETA to release the original petition with her signature.

It reads: "We understand animals are trapped, drowned and beaten to death in the wild and gassed, strangled and electrocuted on fur farms. We will speak up for animals by refusing to wear them."

Meanwhile, Crawford's publicist says was only being "really nice" to PETA at the time, adding: "This is so unfair. She's not pretending to be anything she isn't.

Cindy was never a PETA spokesperson, nor has she taken a stand against fur. All she ever did was a photo as a favour to designer Todd Oldham."