Fox Rescuer Mikayla Raines Commits Suicide At 29; Husband Says Online Bullying Played A Role

Her husband, Ethan Raines, shared the news in a tearful video posted to the organization’s Instagram and YouTube pages, saying the loss is “unimaginable” and pointing to years of online harassment as a contributing factor.

The recent video shows Ethan alone, visibly shaken. “This is a video I never planned on making,” he says, later adding, “But a couple days ago, Mikayla Raines passed away.”

Mikayla founded SaveAFox in 2017 when she was just 20. The Minnesota-based nonprofit has since rescued more than 150 foxes from fur farms, as well as dozens of other animals, including squirrels, birds, and reptiles. Her content often showed her cuddling with the foxes, talking to them, and educating her audience about their behavior, which gained her a following of over 2.4 million subscribers on YouTube. On Instagram, videos of rescued animals running to greet her or snuggling up to her earned hundreds of thousands of likes.

Despite the wholesome videos, Mikayla was struggling. 

Mikayla was on the autism spectrum and had been diagnosed with depression and borderline personality disorder, according to her husband, “She struggled with autism, with depression, with borderline personality disorder, and more,” Ethan said. “She was always in and out of different kinds of therapy, trying various mood stabilizers and meds. But nothing really seemed to help.”

In recent years, Mikayla had become the target of a snark community, a popular forum for individuals to gossip, criticize, and mock influencers and celebrities. These pages exist on platforms like Reddit. 

According to Ethan, the page targeting Mikayla was filled with rumors and cruelty. Worse, he said, many of the participants were people she once considered friends, or individuals from neighboring animal sanctuaries. “She took everything to heart,” he said. “It hurt her a lot, but she pushed through.”

For years, she had endured hateful messages. “She felt as if the entire world had turned against her,” Ethan said, adding that Mikayla’s emotional sensitivity made it hard for her to separate cruel words from reality. She was the kind of person who stayed up at night writing about the emotional toll of her mental health, trying to bring awareness to life on the spectrum.

And yet, through all of it, Mikayla kept going, waking up with task lists, rescuing animals, raising her daughter Freya with gentleness and care, teaching her to ride ponies and nurture cockroaches. “Despite her pouring out all of her love for the animals,” Ethan said, “she still found some love to give to me.”

In his video, Ethan recalled the moment he found her and tried to perform CPR for 15 minutes before paramedics arrived. He didn’t hold back his grief. “I wish you had to see a tiny heartbroken Freya try to understand why she could never see her mommy again,” he said. “I wish you understood that you were doing before you did it.”

The caption on the video also read, “We have suffered a loss that is unimaginable. Mikayla was truly the most amazing and inspiring individual I have ever known, and not having her here makes everything feel empty. I feel broken. But I will continue her dream, and I hope to have your support going forward so that we can do good in her name.”

Mikayla's death has prompted a serious discussion on social media regarding snark pages. One tweet by user @leamaric reads, "We need to have a serious conversation about 'snark' and the deep-seated parasocial contagion infecting women today. Every social media app is full of snark accounts that are next-level crazy, and thousands of women spend hours of their days engaging in this nonsense."

She makes a great point on these snark Subreddits, and how users spend an "exorbitant amount of time and effort constantly auditing, surveilling and mocking and stalking celebs and even minor 'influencers' anywhere online."

A popular tweet X alleges that the snark page was a "troon subreddit," meaning the members were trans.

In the aftermath of Mikayla’s death, screenshots began circulating online showing a Reddit user defending their role in a snark page that had repeatedly criticized her. The user, posting under the name “KazeoLion,” responded to public backlash by writing, “All I did was put together a few sources pointing out some things she did wrong… Even if I did [bully her], you’re no better.” When another commenter called them a “cretin who contributed to the death of a wonderful person,” the user replied, “This will all die down in a month.”

Ethan said he would do everything he could to keep SaveAFox alive, asking followers to continue supporting the rescue through donations, merchandise, and visits. “I will not let Mikayla’s light be extinguished, and I won’t let negativity win,” he said, asking the audience for support. 

Mikayla is survived by Ethan and their daughter, Freya.

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