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.”
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
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.
Apparently there are ‘snark’ (what the hell kinda name for a genre is that?) pages on Reddit for all sorts of niche stuff
There’s snark pages on lemmy too, some of them moved here after getting kicked off Reddit.
Man, my life is kinda sad, but at least it’s not “join a community specifically to hate on stuff” sad. What hosers.
quietly unsubscribes from all reddit sublemmies
Lol at Snarky Puppy getting caught up in that search result.
TIL there’s a snarky puppy community here
Fundiesnark is often for people who leave insane religious institutions or crazy churches to talk about that and make fun of the people still trying to push their hateful religious agenda online, there’s a lot of survivors of some bad shit there, I support it frankly but like, foxes? Not like any of these people are coming from fur farms where they were personally abused and need a space to talk about its ridiculousness
Also snarky puppy is just a musical group it’s not a snark group
Snarky puppy is amazing!
Not like any of these people are coming from fur farms where they were personally abused and need a space to talk about its ridiculousness
I suppose they are incredibly small, disturbed people
It’s a pretty fucked up name if you ask me, specifically.
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.
I follow her and she was a beautiful human. This news is so painful for me.
I think most people know about her through her fox, Finnegan the Fox
If there was an organized harassment campaign against her I wonder if there is any legal culpability for those involved.
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.
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.
Jesus, every single post is made by the same person.
What a fucking nutjob
This is crushing. Loved what she was doing. Loved her channel.
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)
She got harassed and bullied by people she knew IRL. They would’ve slandered her even if she wasn’t on youtube.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
yeah I don’t think the human brain was meant to cater to a million fans
The human race makes me really sick on a daily basis these days
It really feels like the human race is determined to destroy itself.
It really does.
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.
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.
So the motivations are… just to kill an innocent person without having to take responsibility for it? You’re right, more needs to be done about this. Look what happened to Chrischan. Probably wasn’t always willing to commit incest.
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.
See, I have no idea what to do with this idea that fits within the bounds of good ethics but I’m certain that there’s something deeply wrong with our species that gets worse the more isolated we can be without dying off. The further back you go the more likely being shunned for being an absolute piece of trash would lead to your death but now the most broken people can still proliferate and cause problems for everyone else without even really needing to leave their homes. I can think of a million better things to do than obssess over and relentlessly bully someone.
I’m glad that we’ve hit a certain point where more and more people are choosing to have higher standards, and maybe that will help, but holy fuck this is gunna take a while to sort out.
Some nasty people just see someone who appears vulnerable/has mental health issues and use that as an excuse to attack someone. there’s this really fucked up site called Kiwifarms that’s been around for over a decade that was specifically made for trying to harass and bully people to death for being “weird”, trans, or neurodivergent. it could also be they were jealous of her popularity
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.
Why the hell would anyone feel any need to harass someone like this?
Micro-penises.
“Body shaming is good when its men.”
Who’s body shaming? Low self esteem does indeed cause people to lash out at others, and men frequently value their self worth on their dick size.
Accusing anyone that acts a way you don’t like as having a micro penis seems like body shaming to me. I can’t imagine that someone who has one and isn’t a shitty human appreciates being associated with them.
Sophistry. I didn’t accuse “anyone that acts a way I don’t like”, I offered one explanation as to why some people might be assholes to women online.
I don’t like that you’re like weirdly defensive about this, you don’t see me making any accusations.
Damn, you’re dumb as hell. Cryptoableist, lmao.
This is a case where you need to have hard skin before you’re allowed to be a streamer or content creator or celebrity. This is always only a matter of time.
So the responsibility lies with the person who wasn’t thick-skinned, and not with the (likely) hundreds of people who tormented them, got it.
Being sensitive and deeply affected by the treatment one receives from others is a normal human trait. It’s not a moral failing. In fact, the world would be a better place with more sensitivity.
It’s interesting how so many people won’t criticize the bad actors, but easily criticize those on the receiving end of this behavior.
I think that both of you are right. The people doing the harassing are despicable and are culpable for their actions. At the same time, it’s also unrealistic to become an internet celebrity without having thick skin.
The fault isn’t on the streamer. It’s on the potentially hundreds of people who don’t think about their fellow human beings before they hit “submit”. My heart goes out to Mikayla. I wish people could just be nicer to good people.
To give the commenter bit of credit… They didn’t say who’s fault it is. What they said, you put yourself in public? You have a target on your back. Some much larger than others. But the decision is ultimately up to them if they want to be exposed. Does that suck? Yeah. But that’s the reality. It’s not just sunshine and rainbows.
I have heard a lot of creators say they started creating content out of interest for their thing then got a thick skin afterwards. Mostly because they didn’t expect the amount of hate. So by only having people who already have a thick skin be creators we would not have had a lot of creators. It would also lead to there being a larger part of creators who have a similar background. I don’t have an exact percentage of how many wouldn’t have started but all the creators I can think of who talked about how they deal with hate online said they learned how to after becoming one.
Those posters should be identified and held accountable. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back style maybe. What a horrendous situation.
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.
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.
There just aren’t enough therapists learning how to administer dialectical behavior therapy. Very helpful for people with BPD, addiction problems, or PTSD.
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.
Thank you, you’re an amazing sibling. Just don’t let her abuse you. I hope she is getting help, it can get better.
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.
Yeah, her husband shared it when he announced the news on Tuesday (or Monday?).
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Is BPD bi-polar disorder? Or borderline personality disorder?
BPD is borderline personality disorder.
BPD is borderline. BD is Bipolar Disorder. But most commonly referred to as simply bipolar.
Latter
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.
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
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.
Another reason why the US healthcare system sucks shit.
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.
Those of us that watched [trigger warning] her partner’s video about it know that she was.
That’s what I would have expected/assumed. I haven’t had the time to review any of this in detail, so I’m not speaking from an informed position. Thus I generally keep my assumptions to myself.
Good to know.
As captain Picard said: it is possible to make no mistakes, and still lose.
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
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? 🤡
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.
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
