The 29-year-old animal rescuer and YouTube sensation Mikayla Raines p@ssed away.
The “selfless” woman who founded the American animal rescue organization Save A Fox has been referred to as a “superhero” for dedicating her life to protecting animals.
But she had to deal with years of misery after being harassed online by a number of people, including strangers, other animal sanctuaries, and even her “friends.”
Ethan, Raines’ husband, posted a sorrowful video on Raines’ Instagram page in which he says that “ridiculous claims and rumours” hurt his wife.
In the video, he says, “Mikayla was a sensitive person, so she took it all to heart.”
“And it hurt her. A lot.”
Raines has over 560,000 followers on Instagram and 3 million on TikTok. She started working with animals when she was a youngster.
Metro says that she worked as a volunteer with a wildlife rehabilitator before starting the Minnesota-based non-profit company Save A Fox in 2016, when she was 20 years old.
The influencer, who is a mother to a small daughter named Freya, worked hard to get the word out about the group. Their YouTube account currently has more than 2.4 million subscribers.
Her spouse said that she would skip showering, sleeping, and even eating to save an animal, whether it was a fox, a bird, a reptile, a sheep, or even a squirrel.
Ethan, who also works for the rescue, adds in the film that Mikayla was the best and brightest example of what you could do if you really wanted to.
He cries, “Every single animal here just lost their best friend.”
People have been “throwing dirt on Mikayla’s name and the rescue” for years, according to Ethan, who describes Mikayla as a “wonderful wife” and “caring mother.”
He says that most of these people are people she knew and that some of them are other animal sanctuaries. He also says that he thinks the harassment was caused by “jealousy and envy.”
Sadly, Mikayla, who had autism, depression, borderline personality disorder, and other mental health issues, thought that “the whole world had turned against her.”
Ethan adds that her remarkable sensitivity “gave her endless empathy for those in her care,” but it also meant that she took everything bad to heart.
Credit: Mikayla Raines/Instagram
Warning: The following talks about su!cide.
Ethan said that Raines k!lled herself.
The husband’s grieving wife, who he did CPR on for 15 minutes after finding her, says that half of him is now missing.
“The first thing Freya would want every morning is’mommy,’” he sobs in the video.
The letter, which calls Mikayla’s death “unimaginable,” is equally as devastating as the Instagram photo, which has received a ton of tributes and comments.
According to the description, Mikayla was the most incredible and motivating person I have ever met. Everything feels hollow without her here.
I feel like I’m falling apart. But I will keep her dream alive, and I hope you will help me accomplish good in her name.
One wildlife sanctuary wrote in response to the news, “This is so sad.”
A lot of people in our neighbourhood have foxes, but they only came to us because Mikayla was so dedicated to her purpose and cared for animals.
“Everyone will carry a small piece of her light that will live on through them.”
Another person remarked that Mikayla’s death was a “cataclysmic loss,” and a third person added that she loved foxes so much that she could speak their language
