The Unbearable Burden of Caring

 Mikayla Raines, founder of Minnesota's Save a Fox rescue, dies at 29

Some people collect animals for the pleasure of owning them.  Some do it for financial reasons, such as breeding them and selling the offspring to other owners.  Others still accumulate animals in the hopes of saving them.  One such person was Mikayla Raines, who dedicated her life to saving foxes, especially those in fur farms.  The animal rescue field, much like the conservation field, is full of people who mean well, but often are insistent upon doing things their way - I've heard it said that if you put 10 animal people in a room together, the only thing you'll ever get 9 of them to agree on is that the 10th person is doing everything wrong.

As it happened, Ms. Raines became the target of intense online harassment and criticism, not just from your standard internet trolls - nameless, faceless - but from other animal rescue figures that she knew, respected, and trusted.  Already struggling with her mental health, the cyberbullying proved overpowering.  Ms. Raines recently took her life.  Perhaps the constant barrage of criticism and bullying had made her think that her tormentors were right, that she wasn't doing right by the animals, that she was hurting, not helping.  It's a tragic loss - for Ms. Raines, her family, the foxes, and an audience which had grown to love her online content about saving foxes.

Caring about animals - and caring for animals - is hard work.  Physically, mentally, and often emotionally.  It's easy to feel overwhelmed, or defeated, or that you're doing everything wrong and that people hate you.  I've never encountered it directed towards me personally, but I know colleagues who have had folks online tell them that they hoped they died, or deserved to rot in prison, or some other horrible fate because those people disapproved of how animals were being cared for, often based on poorly-formed impressions.

If you are in the animal care field, try to give yourself a little grace.  And no matter what, try to be a little kinder to everyone you meet, in person or online.