this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025

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YouTube star Mikayla Raines dies by suicide at 29, husband blames online abuse (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

252 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Raines created a successful YouTube channel dedicated to her advocacy efforts rescuing foxes from fur farms.

Animal rescue activist and YouTube star Mikayla Raines has died by suicide, according to her husband. She was 29.

Ethan Raines announced her death in an emotional video he posted to her YouTube channel on Monday.

He said that for years his wife suffered from various mental health issues and struggled to cope with online criticism.

"She couldn’t bear what she was feeling any longer, and she ended her life," he said. "And it breaks my heart that someone who is selfless and devoted her life to animals could have so much negativity pointed at her."

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I would also like to add another perspective.

I think its important to bear in mind that there are plenty of examples of animal rights and environmental organisations that have been the target of harrasment campaigns bankrolled by corporate and political interests.

I'm not suggesting this is what happened here. I think we have to scrutinize any possible conspiracy -- I really want to make that clear. If you look through the other comments, there's a lot to delve through here.

But I would suggest bearing in mind that smear campaigns aimed at cultivating a kind of political nihilism is something that does happen.

The best you can do, if you care about these causes, is to continue to support them in whatever ways you can.

In my opinion, all animals deserve a hell of a lot better than this.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 days ago

yeah I don't think the human brain was meant to cater to a million fans

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

This is crushing. Loved what she was doing. Loved her channel.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 4 days ago (5 children)

As a long time SaveAFox fan, Mikayla's death is crushing. This is a woman that deeply deeply cared for animals selflessly her entire life.

The internet has no shame and has become a truly abhorrent place.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

It was reddit. Reddit is dead center of this.

Edit: its amazing how being correctly identifying reddit as the culprit is downvoted on lemmy when its clear most of us are here because reddit sucks a skunks ass.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Tumblr users were also heavily involved

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days ago

I forget tumblr still exists.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

Wow, I'm shocked...

[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Proof? Not that I'm saying you're wrong, I'm just not familiar with this lady at all so would like to know more.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 days ago

I read a long write up about the trolls behavior and accusations but the machine I used for isn't accessible this morning. A little searching and you will find a better write up on it.

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[–] [email protected] 68 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Why the fuck would you harass someone for saving foxes? Is it because she's a woman?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (5 children)

God gave us dominion over all creatures read the Bible!

There are children dying in the streets here, why don't you do anything about them?

The foxes bread for fur here are not capable of living in the wild, "rescuing" and releasing them is the real animal abuse.

I think fox fur is fancy, fuck you lady!

Just some examples I can think of off the top of my head. People can get pretty polarized when it comes to killing, or not killing animals.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I would also like to know what the criticism was, but at the same time, I also feel like the internet can be shit sometimes whether there was reason to criticise or not.

Pretty sad story.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days ago

They claimed she was not taking proper care of the foxes. I haven't read one thing that was in any way proven. It was just trash talking trolls doing what they do best, telling lies. They had story after story about the conditions. The woman was trying to do good, something none of those trolls harassing her have ever did. The trash reddit sub went private because now they fear consequences.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 4 days ago (14 children)

I did the research in the muck mines of the internet for y’all, and it is more complicated than it looks on the surface.

Several animals died in her care due to neglect, including leaving foxes on leashes and letting them get tangled up and baked alive in the sun. There are text messages that leaked of her having paperwork forged to make some animals look like they were bred in captivity. Her organization was registered as a fur farm to avoid some taxes and regulations. Lastly, she had an OnlyFans page where the regularly posed with dogs and foxes in ways that suggested she was trying to appeal to zoofiles, including text descriptions that are very questionable.

A subreddit was created called Save A Fox Snark that was tracking her questionable methods, and one user in particular, seemingly a furry, was very active in screenshotting all of her questionable content in hope that she would get shut down for animal cruelty. That furry is now also being targeted for harassment.

I went straight into the swamp for this info—you can read it all on KiwiFarms, Soyjak, OnlyFans, and the internet archive pages of the Save A Fox Snark subreddit.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago

Thanks for the context. Very helpful.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Yeah sorry if I don't believe this when the source is fucking kiwifarms

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 days ago

She was the subject of harassment for reasons, and here were some of them. Whether the allegations were true or not isn't the point, she still felt harassed enough to do something terrible.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 days ago (3 children)

The source isn’t just kiwifarms—the internet archive pages of the subreddit are still up to see exactly what they were posting. The OnlyFans photos have been archived and there are many of them.

Believe whatever you want, but there was a whole mountain of information out there.

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