Animal rescue YouTuber Mikayla Raines dies by suicide, husband says in video

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Mikayla Raines, an animal rescuer who shared her work on YouTube, has died by suicide, her husband Ethan Frankamp shared on Monday.

In a nearly 12-minute video titled, "An unimaginable loss for the rescue," Ethan Frankamp said Raines died by suicide as a result of mental illness and harassment she faced online.

Since 2009, Raines had maintained a YouTube channel for her animal rescue, Save a Fox Rescue, located in Rice County, Minnesota. The channel's following grew to more than 2.4 million subscribers.

Mikayla Raines: Mother remembers her daughter's relentless fight to save animals

"Mikayla was the most bright and shining example of what you could accomplish if you really set your mind to something," Frankamp said in the video. "She was never held back by ideas everyone else considered unrealistic."

Frankamp explained in the video that in recent years, people online, including owners of other animal rescues, had begun to spread "claims and rumors" about Raines and Save a Fox.

"Being the sensitive human that she was, Mikayla took it all to heart. And it hurt her. It hurt her a lot," Frankamp said. "If you only have negative garbage to say, just shut up. And if you are feeling lost and hopeless, please reach out to someone, whether it's friends and family or calling a hotline."

The Rice County Sheriff's Office is conducting an investigation into Raines' death.

Who was Mikayla Raines?

Raines established her nonprofit, Save a Fox, in 2017, with the intention of saving foxes from the fur trade industry. According to the rescue's website, the rescue has saved about 150 foxes from death over the past eight years. Once foxes are brought into the rescue and nursed back to health, many were available for adoption. Save a Fox also works with cats and minks.

In addition to sharing videos of how to care for various animals, Raines discussed living with autism on social media.

Raines also suffered from depression and borderline personality disorder, Frankamp said in the YouTube video. She spent years in and out of different kinds of therapy, trying various different types of medication, he added.

"She put the animals' wellbeing over her own time and time again. She would forgo sleep, eating and showering if there was an animal that needed her help. Despite her pouring out all of her love for the animals, she still found some love to give to me," Frankamp said in the video, while choking up.

Raines, 30, was also a mother of a 3-year-old daughter named Freya, Mikayla's mother Sandi Raines told Paste BN. Sandi said media reports have misstated Mikayla's age and the last name of her husband, Ethan.

Animal rescue community mourns loss

Since Frankamp's YouTube video posted on Monday, countless followers and animal rescues across the country have shared their condolences.

"This week, the rescue world lost a bright light. Mikayla didn’t just rescue animals – she moved mountains for them," South Carolina based KJ Farms Animal Rescue wrote in a social media post on Monday.

KJ Farms explained in the post that Raines has started a financial campaign for Save a Fox to rescue about 500 foxes from a fox farm. But Raines' efforts to save the foxes was met with online criticism.

"Anyone in rescue knows what it feels like to say, 'Yes,' from your heart, even when your head is screaming, 'How?' She scrambled for space. For homes. For medical help. For funding. And when things got hard, the judgment rolled in faster than the support ever did," KJ Farms wrote. "Some of the very people who should've stood by her – other rescuers – joined the mob instead."

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include new information and new photos.

Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at Paste BN. Story idea? Email her at gcross@usatoday.com.