Fox rescue activist and popular YouTuber Mikayla Raines dies by suicide, husband announces
Mikayla Raines, the founder of Minnesota-based Save a Fox Rescue who built a huge following on YouTube and social media through her activism, has died by suicide.
Her death was confirmed by her husband Ethan in an emotional post to Save a Fox Rescue's social pages, as he reveals she took her own life as she struggled to cope with harassment, some of which shared online.
She is survived by Ethan and their daughter, Freya. Fighting through tears during the 11-minute video, Ethan says his wife was open about her struggles with autism, depression, and borderline personality disorder, and while this helped her hyper-fixate on her relentless efforts to rescue foxes and other animals, it also made her more susceptible to abuse.
"She was so sensitive to everything, which is a double-edged sword because on one hand it allowed her endless empathy for those in her care, but it also means that she took everything negative to heart," he says.
He then proceeds to address "how words whether spoken in person or written online can affect someone," specifically referring to a group of people who have been "throwing dirt on Mikayla's name and the rescue" for a few years, saying they "consistently spread ridiculous claims and rumors."
"Being the sensitive human that she was, Mikayla took it all to heart, and 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," Ethan continues.
"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."
Raines was featured by Bring Me The News in 2018, during the formative years of her fox activism when she was based in Lakeville. She founded the nonprofit Save a Fox Rescue in 2019, with its rescue and rehabilitation center now based in Faribault.
Over the years, Raines' efforts have contributed to the rescue of thousands of foxes and other animals from fur farms. It also made her a viral star, with Save a Fox accumulating more than 2.4 million followers on YouTube, 1.5 million on Facebook and 550,000 on Instagram.
Ethan says that her performed CPR for 15 minutes on Raines until first responders arrived, and says he wishes those who directed negativity towards her could see the heartbreak they have caused.
"I wish you understood what you were doing before you did it before it had to go this far, and I wish you understood that words do have real and terrible consequences.
"If you only have negative garbage to say just shut up, and if you are feeling lost and hopeless please reach out to someone, whether it's friends and family or calling a hotline and to everyone else please."
Ethan says that he will endeavor to continue Raines' work at Save a Fox.
"From a young age she dedicated every waking moment of her life to helping them, whether it was helping a snapping turtle cross the road, or saving 500 foxes from a terrible fur farm. She was truly one of the most selfless people I have ever known," he said.
If you or someone you know needs emotional or mental support, call or text 988 or visit the .
This story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Jun 24, 2025, where it first appeared.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Miss Piggy is going to Broadway—and 'Oh, Mary!' is squealing mad
Miss Piggy, gay icon, is finally set to make her Broadway debut — and one show is Kermit-green with envy. Playbill announced Wednesday that the Muppets will be making their premiere on the Great White Way alongside magician Rob Lake. While it's a long-awaited move for the beloved foam puppets, whose stage presence had previously been limited to Disney theme parks, Oh, Mary! took to social media to bemoan the booking. Some background: When Oh, Mary!'s creator, Cole Escola, appeared on Amy Poehler's podcast, Good Hang, in July, Poehler asked the nonbinary creative who would play the role of the titular character, Mary Todd Lincoln, in a theoretical movie adaptation. (Escola won a Tony this year for portraying Mary, who in their madcap interpretation is an alcoholic more concerned with a cabaret career than the Civil War.) - YouTube Escola threw around some options. "Cherry Jones could do it. She can do anything. She could play Lincoln, too; that would be really chilling," Escola said before landing on a Muppet. "Miss Piggy as Mary Todd Lincoln, and then everyone else is human." "Actually, cut this, I'm gonna be talking to Disney tomorrow," they joked. After it was announced that Miss Piggy would no longer be available, the official Oh, Mary! X account shared their disappointment about the news in a statement released in a Wednesday post. "To our OH, MARY! family — we saw the news about Miss Piggy going into another Broadway show," the Notes app statement read. "Thank you for the support at this time." The X account also uploaded a photo of a screenshot with the Muppets Broadway announcement and wrote in the caption, "Miss Piggy we just want to talk." It's unconfirmed whether or not Miss Piggy will actually be among the Muppets taking the stage; the official press release for the show said that Kermit the Frog and his friends will be joining Lake for his magic show at the Broadhurst Theatre starting this fall as a limited engagement until January 26. If not, this leaves the door open for Miss Piggy to grace the stage at the buzziest show on Broadway right now. (She'd have to contend with Jinkx Monsoon however, who is currently in the lead role. Betty Gilpin and Tituss Burgess have also played Mary in the past.) In a statement, Lake certainly expressed enthusiasm at making magic with the Muppets. "I've been performing magic my entire life, and it has always been my greatest dream to perform my show on Broadway," Lake said. "Like so many people around the world, I grew up with the Muppets. To work with them and create new illusions for them to appear in my show has been the most rewarding and surprisingly familiar moment. It's like I have known them my entire life." This article originally appeared on Out: Miss Piggy is going to Broadway—and 'Oh, Mary!' is squealing mad RELATED Cole Escola reveals who they want to star in an 'Oh, Mary!' film 'Oh, Mary!'s Cole Escola is bringing 'the gay shadows' to Broadway Jinkx Monsoon's next act? Playing Mary Todd Lincoln in 'Oh, Mary!' Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The future of golf isn't just players; creators (and their cameras) are here too
ATLANTA — I saw the future of golf Wednesday afternoon on the East Lake Golf Club putting green. There, 2019 Open champion Shane Lowry and Ryder Cup hero Tommy Fleetwood lined up their last putts before the Tour Championship begins on Thursday. Just a few feet away from them, a handful of YouTube creators, podcasters and influencers — each with their own camera crew — milled about, reading putts and pacing before their own tee times. Wednesday marked the fourth installment of the Creator Classic, a PGA Tour-developed, YouTube-sponsored event pitting 12 of the best-known golf creators against one another in a nine-hole made-for-YouTube event, on the exact same course the pros will play in their season-ending tournament this week. A few steps away from the putting green, three of the stars of the 'Good Good Golf' YouTube channel (1.93 million subscribers) walked toward the first tee for their 3:54 p.m. tee time. On the nearby 18th, another professional golfer measured out his last putts of the day. A group of kids standing along a fenceline couldn't quite figure out whom to watch — the Good Good guys or the pro … a guy by the name of Scottie Scheffler. If that sounds weird or strange or flat-out wrong to you, well … you're not the target demographic for this particular brand of golf. But a whole lot of people are, and the PGA Tour is trying its best to reach them. 'These creators all kind of speak to their own audiences with their own production crews and their own voices,' Chris Wandell, the PGA Tour's Senior Vice President for Media, told Yahoo Sports. 'The amount of content that has resulted from this, and each one of these, has been mind-blowing … content that we could never have scripted just organically happens.' For as long as there's been golf, the relationship between player and fan has been clear: the player plays in front of the fans, the fan watches the pros. But the rise of cheap video capabilities and easy distribution created a third class: fans who play for other fans. Golf 'influencers' and 'content creators' — purists may cringe at the terms, but they're the ones that fit — play some variant of the game in front of literal millions of fans, demythologizing and democratizing a game that's been defined by its gatekeeping rather than its inclusivity. Wednesday's Creator Classic is the fourth installment of the series that began last year at East Lake, a creation born after the Tour recognized just how much Tour-adjacent work that creators were already doing — player interviews, analysis, even tournaments of their own. East Lake makes for a perfect The Tour Championship provided an unconventional, but ideal opportunity — with only 30 players in the field, the course was largely clear by Wednesday afternoon. (Scheffler, Lowry and Fleetwood notwithstanding.) Fans were already on the course and ready to watch more golf … why not give them something a bit outside the norm? 'It was kind of a test — would the idea resonate with fans? Would it resonate with sponsors? Would it bring new people to a tournament that might not otherwise come on a Wednesday at 4:00?' Wandell said. 'We ran it as a test with no solid plans to do it again, and the creators had a great time. Sponsors said, How do I get involved with that? A lot of tournaments called us and said, Can we do this at our tournament?' And so, here we are. Draw a Venn diagram of golf creators, and all you'd have in the center is the word 'golf.' Creators run the gamut from analysts to comedians, precise shotmakers to pranksters. Each style draws in a different subset of fans — fans who might not otherwise get anywhere near a PGA Tour event. 'My fans like to see my friends and I just bantering, talking nonsense,' said Luke Kwon (379,000 subscribers), winner of the 2024 East Lake Creators Classic. 'I think we tend to act like how they act. There's so much comedy that golf sometimes gets pushed to the side.' Others seek to set an example and open doors for people traditionally excluded from the golf world. 'You don't have to be from the best area, the best circumstances to find a place in this game,' Roger Steele (232,000 Instagram followers) said. 'I think that there's opportunities for everybody. You meet good people, and good people will do good things for you.' The twelve creators invited to play on Thursday represent a diverse group of interests and demographics. (Well, not age-wise. Most appeared to fit comfortably in the millennial/elder-Gen Z demo. There were no 65-year-old Boomers or precocious Gen Alphas in the mix. Maybe next year.) Some were here for the competition, some for the fashion, some for the laughs. But all brought massive audiences to the table. The live stream on YouTube easily topped 20,000 viewers — perhaps not massive numbers when compared to a seven-figure PGA Tour broadcast, but better than other golf YouTube streams we could name. 'We've tried our best to balance size of audience, diversity of audience and golf skill,' Wandell says. 'We would love to host 25 handicaps, but this golf course is so hard. Most of these guys are scratch, and even putting them on a course like this, they're going to have trouble breaking par.' The Creator Classic is the live embodiment of an internet truism: where vast viewership numbers gather, money and brands follow. Virtually all of the players in Wednesday's event have their own sponsorship deals, and many have their own merch lines. Akshay Bhatia, who would tee off in the Tour Championship Thursday, mingled with several creators around the putting green. No Laying Up's Soly even managed to wrangle Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan as a caddie. Oh, and there was $100,000 on the line for the winner. Not a bad paycheck for nine holes' work. It's always strange to see social media influencers in the wild. They locate, and mug for, the camera after virtually every significant moment. Their voices, their movements, their entire demeanor are exaggerated when the camera's on them, which works on a phone screen but is juuuuust a bit too much for real life. And oh, the cameras are everywhere. They're the reason these 12 are here, after all. Every moment — every drive, every putt, every chip, every expression — is potential fodder for content, so those cameras have to be rolling. Producers will be hard at work starting Wednesday evening, chopping and carving hours of footage into easily digestible social media content. 'We're trying to build all types of fans, and we want to create products and data and content for fans, no matter how much they want to consume,' Wandell says. 'A lot of the new fans may not have cable, or don't have ESPN Plus. So let's give them some snackable video content, develop the love of golf.' As for the golf itself … well, let's just say the spotters and fore-right paddle holders got more of a workout Wednesday than they're likely to get the rest of the week. Several players dunked their tee shots on the wicked 15th, and most got a chance to visit East Lake's lush rough. Most finished their eight holes over par — in some cases, well over par. But we have all weekend to watch exceptional players at East Lake; this was about watching men and women not all that different from us — better golf games, sure, but otherwise relatable — handling a challenge that most only get to watch on TV. 'My main goal?' said Peter Finch (753,000 subscribers) shortly before teeing off. 'To not be crap.' Haven't we all felt that way, every single round? (For the record, Finch would go on to finish at +6, two strokes out of last place.) In a very real way, the creators are the viewer's avatar, and that's what makes them compelling viewing — it's not hard to imagine ourselves in that spot, and not hard to wonder how we'd do trying to clear the waters of East Lake. (Answer: probably not well.) 'They're getting to play the course inside the ropes, and the full broadcast and all the production, but they're just as excited to see these guys play the course [Thursday] and all through the weekend,' said Chad Mumm, one of the creators of Netflix's 'Full Swing' and president of Pro Shop, a studio that develops original content like the Creator Classic. 'It's just so important for cultivating a healthy future for the fan base of the tour … The internet seems to be in love with what we're doing, and the engagement's been really good.' The Creator Classic ended up being one of the most dramatic finishes of the year on Tour, with four players competing on a single sudden-death playoff hole, in an absolute frog-strangler of a downpour, for $100,000. In the end, Good Good's Brad Dalke took home the title, soaked to the bone as he bro-hugged his way off the course. Golf is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the creator economy; no other sport combines the diversity of locales with the relatively low cost of entry. One tennis court looks pretty much like another, and racing is far too expensive for a casual creator, to cite two other individual-friendly sports. Baseball, basketball, football — none of those lend themselves to the combination of banter, skill and camera-friendly settings that golf does. This isn't the golf of Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods, true … but each one of those legends advanced the game far beyond where they found it, too. There's room for both creators and players in the game of golf, both metaphorically and literally. As several of the creators left the driving range, working their way through both a thicket of cameras and pros like Justin Thomas, one security guard nudged another and pointed at one of the creators, crowing loudly, 'He's internet famous!' A few years ago, that would have been a dismissive insult. Now, though, it sounds a whole lot like admiration.
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Woman Screams at and Attempts to Kick Airport Staff in Outburst Caught on Video
Selomit Velez-Rodriguez, 46, was arrested and charged with battery, criminal mischief and resisting an officer without violence NEED TO KNOW A 46-year-old woman was arrested after having an outburst at Orlando International Airport last week The woman was allegedly denied boarding to a Southwest Airlines flight on Aug. 14 'It's not your brother who's dying," the woman shouted at other passengers in the clip A plane passenger's meltdown in the Orlando International Airport last week has gone viral. On Aug. 14, a woman was allegedly unable to board her Southwest Airlines flight. As a result, she lashed out at the gate agent. A fellow traveler, Peyton Turbeville, recorded the passenger as she screamed at the airline employees. 'Motherf—--,' the woman says at the beginning of the clip. 'Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?'Meanwhile, what appears to be a Southwest employee wearing a pink polo shirt tells others to back away from the hostile customer. After he attempted to talk to her in a calm manner, the woman kicked towards the man. 'That's assault,' Turbeville can be heard saying behind the camera. After taunting the employees and chasing them behind the counter, the woman slams a computer monitor with her phone three times. 'Two flights wasted,' she shouts. 'Three planes, after 45 minutes.' Turbeville told Storyful the incident occurred after the woman did not make the standby list for three flights. After following the employee in a pink polo out into the terminals main walkway, she screamed at other travelers to call the police. 'I have my rights,' she said. 'So that's what I want, the police.' Then she confronted another traveler sitting in the waiting area: 'It's not your brother who's dying, it's not your brother that you need to go disconnect, right?' The woman made her way back to the Southwest counter to punch a different monitor, completely knocking it off the surface. A representative for the Orlando Police Department confirmed in a statement to PEOPLE that officers responded to a report of a battery around 9:30 p.m. local time last Thursday. 'Witnesses told officers that the suspect, identified as Selomit Velez-Rodriguez… attempted to disrupt the boarding process of a flight, struck an airline employee, and damaged a computer monitor and keyboard valued at more than $1,000.' According to police, while being taken into custody, the 46-year-old 'tried to pull away from the officers.' PEOPLE reached out to Southwest Airlines and the Orlando International Airport for comment, but both deferred to local law enforcement. Per court records, Velez-Rodriguez is charged with battery, criminal mischief and resisting an officer without violence. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. In July, another viral video caught a woman's tumultuous meltdown after her flight out of Paris was cancelled. New York-bound Norse Atlantic Airways flight 301 was set to depart at 8:15 p.m. local time on July 3. But, passengers were alerted just before midnight that their trip was cancelled due to mechanical issues. One of the passengers, Erianne Freign, told SWNS a woman dressed in a white T-shirt and yellow pants became frustrated after the airline wouldn't provide hotel accommodations. In a video taken by Freign, the guest shouts and curses at airline employees. After an intense reaction, a police officer grabbed her by the forearm and dragged her behind the counter. Norse Atlantic Airways told PEOPLE in a statement, "Due to issues in Paris, including the ATC strike in France, we experienced unfortunate and temporary irregularities. Passengers were, and will be further followed up. We are unable to comment on specific passenger incidents out of respect for the privacy of those involved. Our team always prioritizes the safety and wellbeing of our passengers." Read the original article on People
