"I did not handle this situation as best as I should have,” Sam Jones wrote in a statement regarding the controversial video

I ran, not to rip the joey away from its mother, but from fear she might attack me,” Jones, who also uses the name Samantha Strable, posted on social media.

A video of the online influencer snatching the joey from the side of its mother drew calls for her to be deported. She left the country Friday.