225
submitted 1 week ago by Stamau123@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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."

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Jerb322@lemmy.world 58 points 1 week ago

How hollow that must feel. Not getting any justice or retribution.

And the disgusting people to blame are probably praising themselves, now.

RIP

[-] Stamau123@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago

From my cursory glance, yes, they are

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 44 points 1 week ago

Jesus, it really goes to show how shitty humanity really is.

I actually really liked watching those foxes laughing, it was a nice little bright spot in a world fully of cynicism and bullshit and if course shitty humans had to be shitty humans harassing her for being a decent human being.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] xiwi@lemmy.dbzer0.com 42 points 1 week ago

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

[-] DarkSurferZA@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 1 week ago

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

[-] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 week ago

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.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Stamau123@lemmy.world 39 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Sad, I watched her shorts sometimes. Apparently there was a hate 'snark' subreddit that just made up shit about her all day, with some members connected to the factory farming fur industry, and pedophilic artist KazeoLion, leading the harassment

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 33 points 1 week ago

So.....wait. I've never heard of her, but you're saying there was an entire subreddit deddicated to making up lies about her, saying she did horrible shit, KNOWING what they said was a lie? Because if I'm reading this right, that's pretty fucked up.

[-] Stamau123@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

Apparently there are 'snark' (what the hell kinda name for a genre is that?) pages on Reddit for all sorts of niche stuff

[-] SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

There's snark pages on lemmy too, some of them moved here after getting kicked off Reddit.

[-] Enkers@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 week ago

Man, my life is kinda sad, but at least it's not "join a community specifically to hate on stuff" sad. What hosers.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] scytale@lemmy.zip 15 points 1 week ago

Lol at Snarky Puppy getting caught up in that search result.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] dontbelasagne@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

So telling lies about people is a ok, but mentioning a green plumber is not. I'm fucking grateful that I'm banned from that cesshole of a website now.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] PixellatedDave@feddit.uk 7 points 1 week ago

I follow her and she was a beautiful human. This news is so painful for me.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 39 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Doing some sleuthing, it appears a former follower was mad about some incidents at the shelter, and started a subreddit against it:

SFW, but click at your own risk.https://web.archive.org/web/20250307232100/https://www.reddit.com/r/saveafoxsnark/

The last web archive backup is old, but my guess is the subreddit snowballed (due to the Reddit engagement algo loving hatesubs, of course) and got us here.

So... yeah.

Rest in peace.

[-] thann@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 week ago

Reddit needs to be held accountable for the snark subs

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Handmaid@lemmy.zip 33 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago

Tragic.

But listen, no one needs YouTube that bad. If you’re having issues because of it get off of it. It’s not real anyway. (YouTube, that is. People and foxes are, of course)

[-] Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com 31 points 1 week ago

That advice is basically, don't work in your chosen vocation. Running animal rehabilitation is not free, you need some sort of source of funding.

[-] RidgeDweller@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 week ago

If your job is causing you enough mental anguish to go through with suicide, it's reasonable to suggest you find another. That goes for any job.

[-] minnow@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

it's reasonable to suggest you find another

If it's "just a job" like working retail at Target, sure, that's a respectable take. It's still blaming the victim, but it's also advocating for the victim to address the issue themselves.

But if it's not "just a job"? If it's your life's work, your calling, something you love more than anything else?

That idea is very likely what drove her to the brink. You really have no fucking clue what you're talking about.

I've been there and I almost didn't survive. Choosing to live isn't always so easy.

[-] Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 week ago

If you are just working for money, yeah.

People work for things that benefit everyone at a personal cost all the time, and advances are made because of people like that. It's a good thing, which had tragic consequences in this instance.

We need to protect people who put the world before themselves. This isn't her failing, it's ours.

[-] RidgeDweller@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

I'm in agreement with you, though I still think it's a fair suggestion for people putting the world before themselves to find another line of work too. I'm not saying that's the only reasonable suggestion. I'm all for trying to mitigate the risk of abuse and trauma in the first place. I took Optional's comment as an intended show of support to folks that might be struggling with similar abuse in their life.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] XeroxCool@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

You think you're doing the right thing
You think you're doing the right thing
You think you're doing the right thing
You think you're doing the right thing
You think you're doing the right thing
You think you're doing the right thing
But they just won't listen.

How can you blame someone for doing what should be universally understood as a positive and still having nonstop trolling? Quitting YouTube wasn't going to stop the harassment. Quitting YouTube wasn't going to make her unsee the harassment. Quitting YouTube wasn't going to promote advocacy for the animals. But you think it's her fault for putting herself in a place that is both a primary media location and collection point for a bunch of toxic people?

[-] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

She got harassed and bullied by people she knew IRL. They would've slandered her even if she wasn't on youtube.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] charade_you_are@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 week ago

The human race makes me really sick on a daily basis these days

[-] FerretyFever0@fedia.io 20 points 1 week ago

Why the hell would anyone feel any need to harass someone like this? Shit like this is never justified, but once in a while I can understand their motivations. Not this. RIP, she was pretty cool.

[-] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Because it works.

kiwifarms has been doing this en masse for over a decade and others predated that.

It is gauche to link to it considering this is the umpteenth fucking person murdered by angry and hateful bastards. But Patrick Klepek, someone who has been targeted by these orgs for over a decade, wrote about this in the context of the emulator developer Near being murdered by kiwi farms et al a few years back https://www.vice.com/en/article/what-i-learned-from-near-an-emulation-legend-and-real-person/

He talked about it more on the Waypoint (now Remap) podcast, but it is very much an open secret that these hate campaigns are ongoing with the explicit goal of murdering their target (it is not fucking suicide if you were tormented until you picked up the gun). And how even fellow victims who usually will advocate for this kind of stuff are wary of raising their voices because they or their partner are semi regularly approached, in person, by these bastards.

My hope, as always, is that this will be the last time. That this will lead to focused efforts by those with platforms to speak out. The reality is that the mid tier "creators" will probably say something and give the trite "If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the national suicide prevention lifeline". Or, well, these days "the national slip and slide prevention lifeline" because gotta stay fucking monetized. And then they'll remain silent. All while the biggies choose to stay fucking silent out of concerns of losing people in their audience who are part of those hate campaigns.


To be clear, I do not fault the people who are under attack and wary of reminding those murderers they exist. I specifically linked to Patrick's post because he and the (now Remap) crew did an amazing job of explaining exactly what goes into this and how painful it is and why they are genuinely afraid to speak up.

I do very much fault the ludwigs and charlies of the world who will mention this for clicks and then never care again. And if the truly massive outlets were to speak out against this kind of harassment and reach out to the victims? Suddenly youtube and twitch and reddit and the like would care and start moderating this shit rather than laughing that kotaku in action and the like are so popular and only occasionally link to where the REAL hate and doxxing happens.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 week ago

They are filled with hate, because they are deeply insecure, deeply afraid, and the current political and social climate tells them that this is not only an acceptable way to deal with those feelings, but encourages them to deal with those feelings in this manner.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Why the hell would anyone feel any need to harass someone like this?

For one, there's good money in it.

Black Cube's tactics have resulted in a number of international controversies. In Canada, the firm was criticized by an Ontario Court for an attempt that aimed to discredit a judge by trying to get him to make antisemitic comments in secretly recorded meetings. In Romania, two of its employees were convicted of criminal charges involving harassment and hacking. The firm also drew condemnation for covertly surveilling and assisting efforts to discredit women accusing Harvey Weinstein of sexual violence and the investigative journalists researching whether those accusations were credible. Their tactics also involve attempts to goad individuals into making anti-semitic or otherwise damaging remarks.

load more comments (6 replies)

People need to start staying off social media, especially when they’re not doing well mentally

[-] scoobford@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 week ago

I couldn't bear to watch her husbands video, but I saw several comments on reddit that her "friends" were spewing this shit too.

While they have admirable goals and do important work, a lot of animal rights people are fucking nuts.

[-] Zedd_Prophecy@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Correction * a lot of PEOPLE are fucking nuts.

[-] Nougat@fedia.io 10 points 1 week ago

I saw a longer quote from him. He doesn't blame online abuse, rather says that it was a (major?) contributing factor. He also said that some of that abuse was coming from other animal rescues, so I'm sure he's fucking pissed on top of grieving.

[-] gwilikers@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] Chocrates@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Wtf she seemed so happy in her vids

Sorry that was a flippant reaction. I'm so sorry she struggled and wish she was able to get help before it came to this.

I have depression and I understand that you can seem outwardly happy and still nothing can bring joy on the inside.

[-] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 week ago
[-] JayDee@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 1 week ago

That's incredibly sad to hear. I watched this channel alot to see the various fox personalities, like Finnegan. I'm gonna be worried about the foxes for a while, now.

[-] Zahille7@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

No, this was the SaveAFox person... This is like hearing if The Girl With The Dogs were to suddenly die tomorrow. I'm not sure I could handle so much good leaving the world so quickly.

They had been posting fundraising updates on their YouTube for the last couple weeks. I hope they can keep it going.

[-] CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 week ago

Holy fuck, I loved SaveAFox, what the hell is wrong with people 😭🤮

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
225 points (97.5% liked)

News

30766 readers
1210 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS