PETA member Emily Lavender, 21, of B.C. had a pie shoved in her face in downtown St. John's Friday. (CBC)

A seal hunt protester with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was pied in St. John's on Friday by someone dressed up in a Newfoundland dog costume.

The incident happened on a street corner in the downtown, while people were waiting for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was in the city for a speech to the construction industry association.

PETA had earlier warned that it would protest the Canadian seal hunt during the Harper event.

Someone dressed in a seal suit accompanied the protester, Emily Lavender, 21, of Vancouver Island, B.C.

However, in a twist, it turned out the person wearing the outfit was an employee of K-Rock — a private FM radio station in St. John's — who contacted PETA in the morning and offered to help with the protest.

Shortly after the protest began, Jason Mills unzipped the costume and started denouncing PETA and its protests in front of the cameras.

Lavender then put the suit on herself and started to continue the protest when a van pulled up and a person dressed in a Newfoundland dog costume jumped out, pulled off the head of Lavender's costume and pushed a cream pie into her face.

PETA member Emily Lavender reacts to having a pie thrown in her face during an incident in St. John's Friday. (CBC)

"He walks over with a pie and after a brief scuffle with this woman, who was putting on the seal suit, he pied her in the face and went away," David Cochrane of CBC News reported from the scene.

After she composed herself, Lavender told reporters: "That's OK, I'll take a pie in the face any day to save a seal."

On Monday, PETA received national attention when one of its members hit Federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea with a pie during a public event in Ontario.

With files from The Canadian Press