This the photo Miss Newfoundland and Labrador Sara Green posted on the Internet. (Courtesy Jeremy Harnum)Miss Newfoundland and Labrador says she was gobsmacked when she saw what an anti-sealing group did to a picture of her wearing a sealskin fur coat that she posted on the Internet.

"Obviously, when I saw the picture, my jaw dropped. There's seal carcasses everywhere," said Sara Green, 19. "But I don't regret wearing a sealskin coat and supporting the seal hunt.

"We Newfoundland and Labradorians need to stick together and defend our culture and our past and keep it alive for future generations."

Green wore the coat as she rode on a float in the 2009 St. John's Santa Claus parade. It was lent to her by a fur store in St. John's.

In the altered photo, a blood-spattered Green is waving a hackapik over the bloody, skinned carcasses of seals.

This is the one an anti-seal hunt group posted on its Facebook page. It's posted on the pages of a Facebook group called F**k Off Newfoundland — Leave Our Seals Alone.

Green called CBC News in St. John's to complain about the photo and said that she's taking advantage of the negative publicity to stand up for the province's annual seal hunt.

"This is just a great opportunity to show my support," she said. "I mean, yes, my name is probably getting bashed and, yes, animal rights groups are freaking out, but it is what I believe in."

Green, who grew up in Winterton, about 142 kilometres west of St. John's, promises she'll take her support a step further next year

"I grew up in a family that goes seal hunting every year, and I'm going to go seal hunting this year. I really am."