Who was Mikayla Raines? YouTuber dies by suicide following online harassment

Mikayla Raines, a YouTuber and the founder of SaveAFox Rescue, has died by suicide. For those unaware, Mikayla Raines was a 31-year-old wildlife rescuer from Minnesota who founded the fox sanctuary called SaveAFox Rescue. She also had a popular YouTube channel with the same name as her organization, which currently has over 2.43 million subscribers.

On June 22, 2025, an 11-minute-58-second video was uploaded to her channel, titled, An unimaginable loss for the rescue. In it, the YouTuber's husband, Ethan Raines, addressed the community and announced her death, saying:

"Mikayla Raines passed away. This is the most hurtful and difficult time of my life, so please bear with me as I try to read this through the tears. Mikayla was the most bright and shining example of what you could accomplish if you really set your mind to something. She was never held back by ideas that everyone else considered unrealistic. As many of you know, she was on the autism spectrum, and while that made her life very difficult, it allowed her to hyper-focus on one thing, and that one thing was, obviously, animals."

At the seven-minute mark of the video, Ethan shared details about certain groups that had "been throwing dirt" on Mikayla's name. He elaborated:

"Now, I want to talk about how words whether spoken in person or written online can affect someone. For a few years, a group of people had been throwing dirt on Mikayla's name and the rescue. Most of these are people she knew, and some of them are other animal sanctuaries. They consistently spread ridiculous claims and rumors, and being a sensitive human that she was, Mikayla took it all to heart, and it hurt her. It hurt her a lot. But she pushed through. For years, she pushed through the pain of people trying to bring her down, and the mental challenges she faced, and she still rescued hundreds of animals and changed the lives of so many." Timestamp - 06:51.

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Mikayla Raines' husband, Ethan Raines, claims recent accusations against SaveAFox Rescue founder resulted in her death by suicide

The video continued with Ethan Raines claiming that the recent accusations, "rude words," and name-calling directed at Mikayla Raines came from people she considered "close friends." Furthermore, he stated that Mikayla believed the "entire world had turned against her":

"But recently, more of the rude words, accusations, and name-calling came from some of those she considered close friends. I think all of this stems from jealousy and envy. But she felt as if the entire world had turned against her. She had always battled with borderline personality disorder, causing emotional instability, as well as impulsive behaviors. But this time, it went too far. She couldn't bear what she was feeling any longer, and she ended her life."

Timestamp - 07:45

At the end of the video, Ethan stated that he plans to "continue to push to rescue" the remaining foxes and save "as many animals as possible."