YouTube star and devoted wildlife rescuer Mikayla Raines has died aged 29.
The ‘selfless’ influencer, who founded the U.S. animal rescue organization, Save A Fox, has been described as a ‘superhero’ who dedicated her life to saving creatures.
But she endured years of pain after allegedly being subjected to online harassment from various people, including strangers, other animal sanctuaries, and even her ‘friends.’
In a heartbreaking video, uploaded to Raines’ Instagram page, her grief-stricken husband, Ethan, claims his wife was hit by ‘ridiculous claims and rumors.’
“Being the sensitive human that she was, Mikayla took it all to heart,” he cries in the clip.
“And it hurt her; it hurt her a lot.”
Raines, who had amassed more than 560,000 followers on Instagram and a further 3 million on TikTok, was just a teenager when she first started working with animals.
She volunteered with a wildlife rehabilitator before founding the Minnesota-based non-profit organization, Save A Fox, in 2016, when she was aged 20, Metro reports.
The influencer – a mother to young daughter, Freya – worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the organization, whose YouTube account now has more than 2.4 million subscribers.
She would forgo showering, sleeping and even eating if there was an animal to be saved – whether it was a fox, a bird, a reptile, a sheep, or even a squirrel, according to her husband.
“Mikayla was the most bright and shining example of what you could accomplish if you really set your mind to something,” Ethan, who also works for the rescue, says in the video.
He tearfully adds: “Every single animal here just lost their best friend.”
Ethan, who pays tribute to Mikayla as a ‘wonderful wife’ and ‘caring mother,’ claims people had been ‘throwing dirt on Mikayla’s name and the rescue’ for several years.
“Most of these are people she knew and some of them are other animal sanctuaries,” he says, adding that he believes the harassment stemmed from ‘jealousy and envy.’
Tragically, Mikayla, who struggled with autism, depression, borderline personality disorder, and other mental health challenges, felt as if ‘the entire world had turned against her.’
Her incredible sensitivity ‘allowed her endless empathy for those in her care,’ says Ethan, ‘but it also means that she took everything negative to heart.’
Warning: the following contains a discussion of s**cide.
Ethan confirmed that Raines took her own life.
The distraught husband, who performed CPR on his wife for 15 minutes after finding her, adds that half of him is now missing, while Freya has been left ‘heartbroken.’
“The first thing Freya would want every morning is ‘mommy,’” he sobs in the footage.
The Instagram post, which has been flooded by comments and tributes, features an equally heart-wrenching caption describing the loss of Mikayla as ‘unimaginable.’
“Mikayla was truly the most amazing and inspiring individual I have ever known, and not having her here makes everything feel empty,” the caption reads.
“I feel broken. But I will continue her dream, and I hope to have your support going forward so that we can do good in her name.”
In response to the news, one wildlife sanctuary wrote: “This is so tragic.
“So many in our community have foxes that only came to us because of Mikayla’s dedication to her mission and empathy toward animals.
“We will all carry a small piece of her light that lives on through them.”
Another commenter described Mikayla’s s**cide as a ‘cataclysmic loss,’ while a third said: “She loved [foxes] so deeply to the point she could speak their language.”