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.”
Those posters should be identified and held accountable. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back style maybe. What a horrendous situation.
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.
The internet mirrors humanity.
Not really. Nowadays, it’s a funhouse mirror that is distorted in ways that rich sociopaths think are better.
It mirrors humanity when we’re anonymous, which is why it’s so awful. There are people who are publicly shitheads without being anonymous, sure, but they’re far fewer in number.
It was reddit. Reddit is dead center of this.
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.
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.
There was a whole subreddit called “r/SaveAfoxSnark” that went private after the news came out. One reddit mod there got doxxed, panicked, and deleted their whole reddit history.
Those snark subreddits need to remember that they’re dealing with human beings.
The older I get the more I understand why the concept of demons was something people could accept.
Idk, some people are just bad. A cousin, adopted but my uncle’s adopted son nonetheless, is a good example of this. He’s no longer with us, thank fucking god, but this little devil was bad from the moment I met him to the point he died at… idk I think it was 18 or 19 years old.
His parents got him a pet weasel. It ‘disappeared’. I don’t remember the specifics but it was pretty clear it didn’t just run away. His brother would show up at the dining table with bruises around his neck. Just fucking evil shit like that. Ended up running away at 17 years old, died in an attempted robbery sometime after that (his memory is not something I try to keep alive).
Point is: there is such a thing as irredeemable. At least, in my eyes.
Tumblr users were also heavily involved
Wow, I’m shocked…
I forget tumblr still exists.
yeah, but can you imagine caring about others? No thanks.
In all seriousness, I’ve never heard of Mikayla before, but this is a big loss for the animals. She saved 150 foxes that would have been killled if she didn’t rescue them. Why can’t we all just get along??
This is a good reason to avoid getting Internet famous. The Internet is full of trolls, and you have to be prepared for it or it’ll destroy you. It doesn’t matter what content you’re famous for, pieces of shit will try to tear you down just for the fun of it.
Particularly if you’re a good person and you tend to internalize what others say about you. Lots of Internet Famous people are sociopaths who thrive on people trying to tear them down.
Another reason why the US healthcare system sucks shit.
Holy fuck, I loved SaveAFox, what the hell is wrong with people 😭🤮
I don’t understand why anyone would be mad that someone was saving foxes from becoming pelts.
Unless you’re the piece of shit profiting from the suffering and death of those animals, in which case, your opinion is null and void, nobody should be against the idea IMO.
It’s incredible to me that anyone would carry such vitriol against such a noble cause.
May she rest in peace.
On any online forum, there are people who just like to stir the shit: doxxing, swatting, death threats, you name it. Most platforms have reduced their efforts to keep those slimebags at bay, and this is the result.
F
“Press F to pay respects” if you don’t know the meme.
Thank you for providing context. I guess I’m officially old on the internet.
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.
It was a redditor, they also posted how proud they were, I posted a screnshot but ppl tweaked at me for using reddit and I deleted it rather than argue
Lemmy people are weird. Can you link/show me this person?
People need to start staying off social media, especially when they’re not doing well mentally
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.
Correction * a lot of PEOPLE are fucking nuts.
It’s not the most gorgeous of truths, but if it wasn’t online abuse, it would likely be something else for her. 75% of people diagnosed with bpd will make at least one suicide attempt in their lifetime.
Gee, do you think someone with BPD would be more or less likely to die by suicide if they’re facing an online harassment campaign. 🙄
More. As I said, the diagnosis is horrible and unfortunately this is not an unlikely occurrence. Seems people hate that as expected. But I know I would be happy to know this statistic earlier in life, so I am not ashamed to express it.
It’s pretty disgusting to look at someone who died by suicide after facing a harassment campaign and then suggest “maybe it wasn’t the harassment, maybe it was the BPD.”
Unfortunately, it’s just the truth. It’s a strong predictor for death before age 25. Bless you, hope you can learn again and help people in need
You’re a fucking joke.
Sadly, you are mistaken and lost in rage. I hope you recover soon it seems very painful
Don’t take the high road when you just said “maybe it wasn’t the online harassment campaign that led to her suicide, but her BPD.” 🙄
You’re not necessarily wrong. I certainly don’t have any information to refute what you say…
I’m just not sure that pointing this out on a post about a woman’s death is enhancing the discussion at all, so I’m not sure why you felt the need to share…
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)
Blaming the victim eh?
No, just saying people younger than me never had a time when none of these horrible things existed. (Other things did, but not YouTube fame.)
Uh OK… Suicide due to bullying isn’t an internet only thing. We’ve been killing ourselves since the beginning of ourselves.
It’s different with the internet, but I don’t need to tell you that.
Fuck off, no one here is blaming her. But reality is holding no punches. I too would love for there to be no world hunger or violence in the world… Wait till you find out about this thing called “crime”!
Fuck off yourself. They clearly put the fact she killed herself in the frame of “it’s so simple to not do a thing”. Extra fuck you because you deserve it.
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?
Quitting YouTube wasn’t going to stop the harassment.
Disagree.
Quitting YouTube wasn’t going to promote advocacy for the animals.
Also disagree
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?
You can change your circumstances. None of it is her fault. But if anyone is in that position they should understand that getting out is absolutely an option.
She got harassed and bullied by people she knew IRL. They would’ve slandered her even if she wasn’t on youtube.
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.
And yet animal rehabilitation exists all over the world and has for decades without it. Somehow.
🤔
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.
it’s reasonable to suggest you find another
If it’s “just a job” like working retail at Target, sure, that’s 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.
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.
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.
Alright, but in general just leaving the work to other people doesn’t mitigate, it just shifts the abuse to other people.
Social workers, emergency aid, etc have high suicide rates.
This is not cool. I don’t know why it’s bothering me but it’s probably because She looks uncomfortably similar to my ex wife. She is not, in fact, my ex wife.
The fact that she had devoted so much work to animals is also eerily similar to my ex wife.
Now if you said she was from like Minnesota/Iowa/Wisconsin and she was autistic too, then I would be making a phone call right now.
No one should ever take YouTube this seriously. People can leave such cruel and thoughtless comments when they’re hiding behind a username.
This is a death caused by tech companies’ steadfast refusal to properly moderate their platforms. Humans are social primates and we will always have a strong reaction to our social environment.
This is a death caused by tech companies’ steadfast refusal to properly moderate their platforms.
I 100% agree with this! Mikayla Raines killed herself because Shittit (Reddit) allowed r/saveafoxsnark to flourish! Heck, they aren’t even banning it NOW! Even after an innocent women commited suicide and Reddit getting a lot of bad press! I left Reddit today. I’m a long time Shittit qunkie and couldn’t quit it and kept on going back. But not anymore. I no longer wish to be on a platform which allows communities to basically push someone to suicide. They are snark communities in lemmy too. Hope they get weeded out!
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.
Humans not humanity.
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.
Jesus, every single post is made by the same person.
What a fucking nutjob
Reddit needs to be held accountable for the snark subs
I’m pretty okay with Duggar snark and Sister Wives snark. My girl follows all of it. Anything that spotlights the abuse inherent in fundamentalist Mormonism/Evangelicalism is mostly a good thing, in my book.
No clue about the particulars on this. Never heard of her before.
