Bindi Irwin rallies behind mum, blasts Bob Katter who tells Terri: 'Keep your mouth shut'

Australian celebrity and wildlife warrior Bindi Iriwn has proven once more that behind her sweet face is a feisty woman who can fight for her loved ones.

The 18-year-old daughter of the late TV personality Steve Irwin took to Twitter to defend her mum. In a recent post, Bindi wrote, “How can you be a politician and recommend denying someone their freedom of speech? Stay strong my beautiful Mum, I love you.”

Bindi’s spirited tweet accompanied a clip from The Morning Show, wherein Independent MP Bob Katter delivered harsh words to Terri Irwin. Terri, who owns Australia Zoo, seeks to continue the legacy left by her husband, dubbed “The Crocodile Hunter.” Asked for his message to Terri, Katter said, “Go back to making your money and your soup. Keep your mouth shut.”

The controversial politician’s seething remarks stems from Terri’s criticism on recent proposals to cull crocodiles. In a reply to The Morning Show’s online poll regarding Katter’s crocodile cull proposal, Terri tweeted, “An average of 1 person per year falls victim to a croc in Australia. While that’s 1 too many, consider this.” She then posted an infographic showing the world’s deadliest animals and the number of people they kill per year. Mosquitos top the list, killing 725,000 people, while humans follow suit with 475,000.

“Crocodile culling is an incredibly inhumane practice, often leaving crocodiles with debilitating injuries,” Terri was also quoted as saying, according to a report by the Brisbane Times. “Science does not support culling crocodiles and it would be a disaster for both human safety and crocodile ecology.”

Katter, who said that Australians are being eaten and ripped to pieces by crocodiles, called for crocodile culling after a croc attacked a 46-year-old woman at Thornton Beach, north of Cairns earlier in May. [READ: “MP Warren Entsch says crocodile attack was ‘human stupidity’”] While some claim that it was avoidable, Katter used the incident to revive his crocodile cull proposal, recommending for crocodile shooting safaris to manage the reptiles’ population.

Some Twitter users have slammed Katter for his message to Terri and urged her not to respond. While Terri hasn’t posted anything about it on her Twitter page, Bindi decided to stand up for her mum. The “Dancing With The Stars” winner also garnered positive feedback following her tweet.

Here are some of the Twitter reactions to Katter’s “keep your mouth shut” message.