Inuit singer endures nasty backlash after tweeting photo of her baby next to dead seal

Canada's controversial seal hunt has been the target of celebrities' ire for years. Who could forget Paul McCartney and his then-wife Heather Mills posing on the Newfoundland ice with a baby seal?

TV host Ellen Degeneres is a longtime opponent of the annual hunt and she recently helped raise US$1.5 million for the anti-sealing campaign via a donation from smartphone-maker Samsung, whose product she used for her now-famous Oscar-night selfie.

That prompted sealing supporters in Canada's Inuit community to create their own "sealfie" campaign. The effort was intended to point out seal hunting is essential to the Inuit way of life, the web site Indian Country explained.

“Once in a while, a new pretty blond celebrity comes along and drowns our voice out,” Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, an Inuk from Iqaluit, who helped organize the campaign, told The Canadian Press. “I was surprised to see this time it’s Ellen.”

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But it was Inuit singing star Tanya Tagaq's provocative "sealfie" that's sparked a furious social-media brouhaha. She's come under fire for tweeting a photo of her baby lying next to a dead adult seal, its blood splashed inches from the child's head.

The shot, taken near Tagaq's Cambridge Bay, Nunavut home, and tweeted March 28, sent anti-sealing activists and their supporters into a spitting rage.

The invective took a nasty turn.

The attacks, including one woman's petition to have her baby taken away, shocked Tagaq.

“It became quite hurtful,” Tagaq told CBC News. “Right now, actually there's a woman who has my picture up on her Twitter and the things that people are saying about myself and my baby. It's just complete harassment. It's not OK.”

[ Related: Canada’s seal hunt still fighting public perception as WTO reconsiders European Union ban ]

The Inuit seal hunt differs from the Newfoundland hunt in that subsistence is a more important fact. Inuit still use seal meat in their diet and use the pelts for clothing, also selling some for cash.

The seal in Tagaq's photo was not clubbed but reportedly was shot with a rifle.

The nasty reaction to the singer's photo generated an equally large outpouring of support for her.

Tagaq, who is touring in Europe, also shot back at her detractors.

No word yet from Ellen on the "sealfie" campaign.