RIP Mikayla Raines. Bullying of Animal Rescuers Must Stop by Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates

Wildlife rehabilitator Mikayla Raines of Save a Fox committed suicide June 20, 2025 at 29 years of age. Mikayla leaves behind a loving husband, daughter and animal rescue organization. Her husband stated in a video that other rescuers had been stalking, harassing and attacking her viciously which caused Mikayla to kill herself. Such a sad preventable situation.

Bullying is a common theme in the animal rescue world. I've been stalked by a certain bully and her crew since 2010. I got a restraining order which they violated over 150 times within two weeks. It didn't stop any of the bullying. My bully even emailed me telling me I should kill myself. They want me to kill myself. I bet Mikayla's bullies are happy they caused her death.

I spoke with the Los Angeles County expert on stalkers at the time. The woman wrote a book on stalking. They told me my stalker was jealous and mentally ill. They told me to get a civil restraining order which didn't help at all. My stalker relished the attention. 

Part of the Minimum Standards for Wildlife Rehabilitation talks about this issue specifically. Warden Joe Baima of the California Department of Fish & Wildlife used to start off each District 5 meeting by reading this section of the code of ethics. 

Minimum Standards for Wildlife Rehabilitation, 4th edition, 2012, NWRA & IWRC, Code of Ethics, pg V, Item 6. "A wildlife rehabilitator should respect other rehabilitators and persons in related fields, 

sharing skills and knowledge in the spirit of cooperation for the welfare of the animals."

Joe Baima would then tell the rehabbers that he doesn't want to see or hear any complaints against other rehabbers. I was told it all came out of jealousy and envy. Some are jealous another rehabber got in a rarer boutique species. Some are jealous that someone's rescue video is going viral. Some are jealous that another groups gets lots of donations. Some are just jealous over looks, age and weight. There are also some rehabbers who want to be the gate keeper of certain species. One lady wants to be in charge of all bobcats. Another wants to be in charge of all bats. It doesn't make any sense as there are many more animals than all the rehabbers can possibly handle. Killing off a rehabber only makes your workload larger.

Other times one rehabber is upset that they can't rehab skunks in their condo. They decide to try to make it impossible for anyone to rehab skunks by filing bizarre and false reports about skunk rehabbers. All the while they are illegally rehabbing skunks in their condo while their neighbors object.

There need to be better laws and regulations to deal with bullies. Restraining orders don't help. Lawsuits are complex and expensive. People are allowed to harass, defame, file false reports against people as much as they want no matter the laws. Based on what happened to Mikayla it's clearly legal to bully someone to death. While the husband could legally file a lawsuit it'd be pointless. Mikayla is never coming back. Justice is also rarely possible unless you have a lot of money and political contacts.

Obituary

https://jmmcbeathfuneralhome.com/news/mikayla-raines

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game and the USDA. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.

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