Tillikum the Serial Killer Whale Is Spartacus

"I am not an animal!"

​Depending on how you feel about wild animals kept in captivity, Tillikum the SeaWorld-trainer-killer is either a dangerous mammal or an unfortunately restrained creature just acting like his biology intended him to act.

Or, if you're Alexander Cockburn, he's Spartacus, imparting the "spirit of rebellion" to other Orcas and orchestrating a slave revolt. That's the case Cockburn makes in the U.K.'s First Post.

Call him, just for now, Spartacus. He was two years when the slavers captured him in 1982 and hauled him off to the little town of Victoria, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in the far Canadian west. And there he met his fellow slaves, Nootka and Haida. Day after day in slave school they learned their tricks. Day after day, they did their act for the paying customers. And then, on February 20, 1991, in the tank operated by Sealand of the Pacific, the three struck back at their captors.

After the jump, a more detailed account of Tillikum's first killing/justified captor slaying.

From an excerpt of Jason Hribal's "Fear of the Animal Planet: The Hidden History of Animal Resistance":

It was the first time that a trainer had ever been killed by a group of captive killer whales. There had been previous attempts, a great many actually. But the trainers involved, whether through rescue by other employees or a stroke of luck on their part, had always managed to survive. This attack, however, proved to be different and fatal. It occurred on February 21, 1991 at Sealand of the Pacific.

That day's final performance had just ended at the Victoria, British Columbia based aquarium and the audience was pleased. They got to watch three killer whales, Nootka, Haida, and Tilikum, perform tricks, including one trick wherein a young female trainer rode on the back of one of these great sea mammals. It seemed to be wonderful fun--that is, until that particular female trainer fell into the water. As she attempted to climb out, an orca latched on to her. "The whale got her foot," an audience member recalled to reporters, "and pulled her in." We do not know which orca it was that started it, but all three, Nootka, Haida, and Tilikum, took their turns dunking the screaming woman underwater. "She went up and down three times," another visitor continued. The Sealand employees "almost got her once with the hook pole, but they couldn't because the whales were moving so fast." One trainer tossed out a floatation ring, but the whales would not let her grab it. In fact, the closer that such devices got to the young woman, the further out the whales pulled her into the pool. It took park officials two hours to recover her drowned body.

Fuck with Spartacus, and risk your body being used as a play toy.