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.”
Perhaps someone prone to depression and suicidal ideation might be well advised not to choose a highly visible public career where one is constantly exposed to the rantings of evil trolls.
This isn’t victim-blaming, it’s just an acknowledgement that the world as it currently is, is full of toxic backwaters that should be avoided.
That still sounds like victim blaming to me? Yes, there are a ton of shit people in the world, but I feel like rather than “she shouldn’t have taken up that career”, we should instead be fighting back against the idea that people are allowed to be this shitty:
- What’s up with these people that they give out so much abuse?
- Did YouTube and other sites do anything to protect her?
- What else can we do to protect vulnerable people from abuse while letting them do their job?
- What support did she get? Could she have had more?
- How can we prevent this from happening to the next content creator?
I don’t know the answer to these, but just saying ‘she shouldn’t have started in the first place’ feels like a massive cop out to me.
Depressed people are told to get out and touch grass and do something good for the world, some go and do that and then get attacked and bullied for doing something good in the world. Then someone says well they shouldn’t have done this or not. IMO I would agree its victim blaming. Mental health systems suck in many countries where people rarely get the help they need and then people online bring cruel and inhumane because they can hide behind a screen.
Genuine question: apart from the people who would profit from the activities she was fighting against, or the would-be patrons of such a business… Why would anyone carry hate for what she was trying to accomplish?
I know there’s a whole religious argument, which I find to be wretched at the foundation; just because you ‘have dominion’ over creatures does not imply that it’s ok to torture them and/or kill them for their fur unnecessarily…
Anything else? I just can’t think of anything.
I don’t really know any details about how stuff worked beyond just saving foxes, but my random guess would be people calling it woke and attacking that, there are many people who think things involved with helping the environment and things related to that is bad. It seems like anything considered remotely “woke” is attacked because of rhetoric coming from the right wing.
It seems to be related to fur and there are people who dislike the idea of losing access to animal products like fur coats and leather goods, that is likely related.
Mainly the same criticism of famous social media influencers who are not qualified or experts in the thing they are doing. Being passionate about something doesnt make everything you do the right thing. All that said, I don’t agree that should cause hate, but criticism or opposing opinions were fair in this situation when it comes down to animal welfare.
Not the ending any reasonable person would want I would hope.
Could have just stopped the YouTube channel and done something else. I know this is a stupid comment but it makes you wonder whether a bit of therapy or support in that direction would have been a bit more accessible her life could have been saved.
If you know it’s a stupid comment, maybe don’t make it
I get what you’re trying to say, but by saying it, you’ve demonstrated a significant misunderstanding of what it’s like to live with depression and suicidal ideation.
As simply as I can: I wouldn’t assume that she wasn’t seeking mental health help when she ended her own life. Just because she was successful in removing her own life, does not mean she wasn’t trying to save herself from that outcome.
Intellectually, the above statement is contradictory, if she didn’t want to die, then why did she end her own life? That, is the very nature of suicidal ideation and depression. You can’t intellectually ponder it out of existence, and you can want to live while still having suicidal urges that are hard to control.
This isn’t a logic problem. Intellectual reasoning doesn’t have a place in the discussion. The cognitive therapy you get from a mental health professional often needs to be paired with anti-depressants to mitigate the negative thoughts while you sort of work on rewiring how you think about the things that are causing you to feel depressed. Whether those things are internal thoughts, or comments from external sources…
Depression is a demon that isn’t easy to overcome.
By saying she should have just gotten therapy trivializes the struggle that some people go through every day, so I would expect some down votes for your comment. I understand that your comment is meant to be helpful and coming from a place of caring, but it does not come across that way.
I’ll add a disclaimer: all of the thoughts and ideas expressed here have no scientific, nor medical basis, I am not a doctor. These are from my own personal experiences and research, and have no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I may be wrong and if I am, I hope any readers will comment to let me know that I have erred.
A final note: to anyone struggling with mental health: I hope you get the help and support you need to overcome any struggles you may be experiencing. I sincerely hope you can find a path towards mental health that works for you.
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
Piss off you victim blaming ass
Work on your reading comprehension my dude
Work on not being a shitty person
hey uhh this isn’t exactly a happy conversation, but, uh happy cake day 😅
Maybe if you could read you wouldn’t need to call other people shitty but have a day I guess bye
You’re blaming the victim.
Anyone else not know who this person is & think they needed a psychiatrist?
That’s the thing. You (and I) don’t know she wasn’t seeing a psychiatrist and/or mental health professional.
You can seek help and want to live while still losing the fight against suicidal ideation.
This is the correct comment.
Therapy doesn’t solve suicide.
If it did, no one would kill themselves.
There’s a huge difference between “always” and “never”, and a huge variation in severity, duration, and underlying reasons for suicidal ideation and intent.
ok
Those of us that watched [trigger warning] her partner’s video about it know that she was.
Why? Do you know psychiatry? Do you know this person? Do you know that she needed one? How can you know that, if you don’t know either of those things? You’re insulting a person who died in pain because you’re too ignorant to know what happened or how to prevent it. Shut up.
So you don’t think they needed one? 🤡
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.
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.
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…
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.”
I remember watching some fox channels with a lot of rescue foxes including one called Finnegan. Was that her? So sad that anyone would harass somebody like that.
Yes, that was her channel.
NOOOOO :(((( I am heartbroken:(((
poor fennigan and Dixie :(((
Hers was SaveAFox
Another reason why the US healthcare system sucks shit.
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
Idk why. If it was the same person, the information is relevant to the discussion.
I’m happy to know that they were proud of what they were doing. I hope it was a light in their life.
It’s terrible that anyone would hold any hate for someone trying to do the kind of work she was doing.
Lemmy people are weird. Can you link/show me this person?
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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.
I believe she had BPD as well, which in itself often gets you targeted harassment online while also making you extremely sensitive to said harassment.
Wait what? People harass people online because they’ve got BPD? Like they specifically target people who are suffering from BPD? Why??
Fucking gross.
No, people don’t specifically look for people with BPD. I believe you misunderstood.
I would assume that the trolls are attracted to those people because they get more of a reaction to their vitriol. It’s sad, honestly.
Yeah, I agree. If a sadistic person wants to see reactions naturally they’ll continue to harass the people that give it to them.
Then what does this mean?
I believe she had BPD as well, which in itself often gets you targeted harassment online
I believe some people react to bullying in a specific way that excites bullies. It’s not like they say “hey, who’s got BPD,” it’s just that people with BPD tend to get the reactions they seek. Don’t mistake this as saying the bullies aren’t doing wrong or ableist. It’s still awful.
Well, it is unfortunately symptomatic. Lived with one for 10 years. Gave everything. It is not easy to admit that most of the even self aware sufferers will automatically manipulate and stir up drama due to the impossible weight of their own guilt and anger which if you want to help you have to realise is never going away and more often than not continually hurt anyone around them. It’s sad that giving energy and help to sufferers is so draining and destructive and if you want support many people react like you. Except in support groups. So if anyone is reading : take care of yourself first, giving more than you have is bad for everyone and it will be hard not to. Support groups are your friend as many that are in the same situation sharing and understanding is deeply important to survive
Because hurt people hurt people.
People with BPD can be very manipulative and controlling, they can leave you with your own psychological trauma if they’re not self aware enough to realise what they’re doing. And some people are just evil and don’t try be better. So there are a lot of people who have been hurt by people with BPD and they then become a target for harassment.
Sad part is that most people with BPD just want to be loved. Unfortunately they can’t trust love or anyone around them. It’s fucked and really hard to manage, but possible with a lot of hard work.
I’ve been hurt a lot by people with BPD. I have provided a lot of emotional (and financial) support only to eventually be taken for granted and/or abused. Some people with BPD can be absolute monsters.
It’s taken years of therapy and self healing to understand how they’re hurting too and seriously don’t understand how they’re hurting others sometimes.
Just wish more people could learn to not lash out when they’re hurt and seek healing. It’s hard regardless if you’ve got BPD, PTSD, or whatever, but it’s always the right way to go. Everyone deserves respect and understanding.
Is BPD bi-polar disorder? Or borderline personality disorder?
BPD is borderline. BD is Bipolar Disorder. But most commonly referred to as simply bipolar.
BPD is borderline personality disorder.
Latter
I don’t know her at all - is that BPD diagnosis something confirmed, thet she shared and all?
I have terribly mixed feelings about people with BPD.
On one side, lots of empathy: they often feel miserable and (not always, but) very often their BPD is the result of trauma or abuse.
On the other, and having lived it for a decade and a half: they can make the lives of people in their surroundings an absolute abominable horror-movie type of nightmare.
It’s actually treatable but not all people with BPD seek treatment, it’s a tough one.
Yeah, her husband shared it when he announced the news on Tuesday (or Monday?).
There just aren’t enough therapists learning how to administer dialectical behavior therapy. Very helpful for people with BPD, addiction problems, or PTSD.
I have an uncle who has been cut-off from the family because he refuses to treat his
BPDbipolar (whoops) and his sisters got tired of taking care of/cleaning up after him. “Doesn’t like how the medicine makes him feel”. Pretty sure he started self-medicating with other stuff and found a woman who enables him, don’t know exactly (it’s been two decades since I last heard from him)If he was taking medicine for it, it likely wasn’t BPD; BPD doesn’t have any chemical treatments. Treatment is usually Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to try and regulate the person’s emotions and establish a more normalized baseline emotional state. But that requires a lot of personal effort, and many people with BPD refuse to follow through with it. And CBT only really helps with the emotional outbursts; It doesn’t do a lot for the abandonment issues, desires to self-harm, dissociation, etc…
Maybe he was bipolar? Bipolar is in the same category as schizophrenia, because the mania produces delusions and hallucinations. And it is treated with meds similar to schizophrenia.
BPD relies on DBT and not CBT
Bipolar is indeed what I meant, I forgot that Borderline Personality Disorder took the initialism. It’s also probable that he has more than just that going on.
I personally cannot confirm it, I just saw it being mentioned on one of the BPD subs on reddit.
I think it’s important to differentiate people with mental health issues and bad people with mental health issues.
I have BPD, it sucks so much and I suffer a lot of emotional pain. I have hurt some people, but the first person I really hurt, I loved like no other, and when she told me what I was doing to her when she left me, I decided not to be that person anymore.
I’ve fucked up a lot of my life during my worse episodes, but I choose not to be a horrible person to the people around me. I don’t always get it right, but I try.
A diagnosis doesn’t make you evil or bad, that’s a personal choice.
Bless you, take care of yourself and loved ones. If you do anything at all, please have safeguards against the most harrowing statistics with suicide on this diagnosis. Even worse if you are male but that’s beside the point <3
BPD is brutal on the people close to the person with the disorder. Absolutely brutal.
My sister has BPD. My parents cut her off after some particularly spectacular episodes. I stuck up for her even after she wasn’t allowed around anymore. She tried to off herself in my room when I let her hide out from her boyfriend (not the first time she did that). She ended up moving in with that scumbag who on multiple occasions beat her senseless and threw her out of a moving vehicle. I had to come over (strapped mind you) and escort her from his place to the station onto a greyhound to go live with her cousin. I have so much fuckin trauma on account of her. She’s better now, for now. If it comes to it again tho I’ll always fight tooth and nail to keep her safe, regardless of how outrageously she behaves. That’s my fuckin sister.
You’re a good sibling. I had an ex that really fucked me up. I found out later that she was diagnosed with BPD a few years after our relationship.
After reading up on it, it explained so much… Didn’t really help anything, but explained it. Made the mistake of reconnecting with her around the time of the pandemic. What a terrible idea that was lol.
Thank you, you’re an amazing sibling. Just don’t let her abuse you. I hope she is getting help, it can get better.
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.
If only. The fact is there are also plenty of animal rights organizations that think they could have done a better job and/or that she was doing it wrong. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were people who saw SaveAFox as another Tiger King.
Fucking Tiger King and media literacy… The amount of people who stopped watching that and thought Big Cat Rescue was bad was crazy.
Yeah there’s a big difference between rehabbing animals based on heavy human contact VS as minimal contact as possible, in this age, I can definitely see harassment from people who are very opinionated and have kind of lost the plot; who harasses people that are trying to help but have a method you disagree with versus the people who don’t care or are doing harm?
As a long time supporter of SaveAFox, it’s hard to really even process this. I am sure being an online personality to try and fundraise isn’t easy, but never did I dream that there was such a degree of hate lobbed at Mikayla that she’d decide to end her own life. Someone so kind and devoted to the lives of creatures who are constantly exploited and cannot save themselves. It’s just despicable, and all I can really hope for is that Mikayla’s mission continues on in spite of such significant loss.
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.
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??
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.
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.
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.
Edit: The mod’s reddit handle is/was KazeoLion. There are only quotes here about this, so take it all with a grain of salt until we know more. These are YouTube comments:
MappleBunny 13 hours ago One of the people responsible for the bullying is a reddit user by the name of KazeoLion, who has since been doxxed and had to delete most of his reddit posts (which are still available in the wayback machine), he even made a post where he doubled down on his actions.
We will neither forgive nor forget. Rest in peace Mikayla
bluebowser3347 21 hours ago There was a whole subreddit called r/SaveAfoxSnark that was dedicated to bullying and harassing Mikayla. The moment the news came out that she had killed herself the subreddit switched to private.
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.
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.
Tumblr users were also heavily involved
I forget tumblr still exists.
Wow, I’m shocked…
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.
Why the fuck would you harass someone for saving foxes? Is it because she’s a woman?
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.
isn’t it stupid?
If you kill cats and dogs, you’re a sociopath. But when you kill foxes, that’s fine.
In this case I’d say it’s a difference between animals raised as a product vs animals as pets. Personally, I don’t take issue with animal products as long as the animal is treated with care during life and dignity during death, but I definitely understand why some people are against animal products. Harassing them to the point of suicide is not an acceptable reaction. I’d also put some money down that the industries she targeted had at least some involvement in harassing her.
What difference does it make what they were “raised for”? Black people were raised for slavery, doesn’t make it right. All food animals have the exact same capability to suffer in the same way that dogs and cats can. So what they were raised for is irrelevant.
h care during life and dignity during death,
they aren’t. Cows have their children taken from them in the dairy industry. male chicks are murdered at 1 DAY OLD in the egg industry. Cows, pigs, chickens etc live in their own festering faeces in the meat indsutries.
A perfect demonstration of my point. Thank you.
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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.
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.
Never, ever source Kiwifarms. That org is fucking disturbing
I don’t think the veracity of claims on these sites is important, moreso what was said and how it might have affected the narrative and her.
They were the ones organizing some of the bullying—I wanted to see the posts she was seeing to better understand the nature of the harassment.
Yeah sorry if I don’t believe this when the source is fucking kiwifarms
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.
And you need to keep in mind that targeted harassment campaigns are perfectly content twisting and manipulating the truth. I have plenty of experience with shit like that from my personal life. So I do not put a lot of stock in info sourced from places like those
In addition, I highly doubt the founder would have been this deeply affected by the harassment if she actually was a person that didn’t care much for the animals or others and their opinions
I do keep that in mind, that’s why I just report what I saw and where I saw it. The OnlyFans posts were created by her directly, I don’t think there is any dispute that the account was hers.
People can believe what they want, I just did some digging to see what the accusations were that made her feel like suicide was her only option.
There’s a whole mountain of misinformation as well, and you decided that looking into the loaded conclusions and supposed “leaks” that had no other facts to back them up than what they were telling you.
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.
Kiwifarms isn’t always wrong, but they like to fuck up things major ways, usually by focusing too much on someone being a leftist and/or trans, and sometimes even covering up abusers. They managed to cover up a rapist by not only focusing on her being trans, but also harassed multiple of her victims as it usually were “drunken sex”, which wasn’t considered as rape by many. Also Kiwifarms has an obsession with the “let’s paint our targets as irredeemable assholes, so driving them into suicide will be heroic, and also can be weaponized against the same group later on”. (BPD, while often seem like a misdiagnosis of badly mishandled CPTSD, is pretty much “asshole disorder” in many people’s minds.)
So basically, you consider going to the people who drove her to commit suicide “doing the research”.
Doing the research to see what they were saying about her that might lead her to commit suicide, yes. If you want to know what the cyber bullying was that caused someone to commit suicide, it makes sense to look at the posts themselves, which is what I did.
I too look at ISIS propaganda when I want to see why they did what they did 🙄
There’s a huge difference between reading Mein Kampf and praising it for its good points.
Where did I praise my sources, exactly?
I did the research in the muck mines of Mein Kampf for y’all, and it is more complicated than it looks on the surface.
<insert Nazi apologism>
I went straight into the swamp for this info—and here’s where you can look it up <insert link to Neonazi sites>
Thanks for the context. Very helpful.
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.
