this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
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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."

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 55 points 1 day ago (15 children)

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)

[–] XeroxCool@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

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?

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[–] charade_you_are@sh.itjust.works 38 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The human race makes me really sick on a daily basis these days

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[–] FerretyFever0@fedia.io 85 points 1 day ago (10 children)

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.

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 55 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

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.

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[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 59 points 1 day ago

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.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 31 points 1 day ago

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.

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[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

This is crushing. Loved what she was doing. Loved her channel.

[–] But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 37 points 1 day ago (1 children)

People need to start staying off social media, especially when they’re not doing well mentally

[–] scoobford@lemmy.zip 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Zedd_Prophecy@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

Correction * a lot of PEOPLE are fucking nuts.

[–] entwine413@lemm.ee 44 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is a good reason to avoid getting Internet famous. The Internet is full of trolls, and you have to be prepared for it or it'll destroy you. It doesn't matter what content you're famous for, pieces of shit will try to tear you down just for the fun of it.

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[–] JayDee@lemmy.sdf.org 30 points 1 day ago

That's incredibly sad to hear. I watched this channel alot to see the various fox personalities, like Finnegan. I'm gonna be worried about the foxes for a while, now.

[–] Chocrates@lemmy.world 43 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Wtf she seemed so happy in her vids

Sorry that was a flippant reaction. I'm so sorry she struggled and wish she was able to get help before it came to this.

I have depression and I understand that you can seem outwardly happy and still nothing can bring joy on the inside.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 38 points 1 day ago

I saw a longer quote from him. He doesn't blame online abuse, rather says that it was a (major?) contributing factor. He also said that some of that abuse was coming from other animal rescues, so I'm sure he's fucking pissed on top of grieving.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Weird how someone who became a minor celebrity opposing the lucrative live fur industry would be targeted and harassed to death.

I hope this isn't some kind of pattern, wherein public figures who speak out in defense of environmental and social welfare causes are defamed and driven into obscurity or death.

[–] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This has been an established pattern for decades...

[–] kamenlady@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I think it was around 2002, when i read about that girl that died from a car accident. She had taken her dad's car, without permission.

Iirc, one of the police officers that was at the accident site took lots of photos of her corpse or rather, from the pieces scattered along the road.

Somehow those photos were leaked online and trolls had nothing better to do, than keep sending emails to the girl's parents. The subject was something along the lines of , paraphrasing, "Hi Dad, I'm back" or "Guess who's back in town?"

The emails always contained some of the photos.

The parents moved and even changed their names.

Who the fuck does something like that? The same kind of troll, that now harassed Mikayla to death.

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