Content note: This article discusses suicide, mental health, grief, and online harassment. Words cannot even begin to express the sadness and loss I am feeling right now, and i did not even know her personally.

Who Was Mikayla Raines?

Mikayla Raines was an animal rescuer, wildlife advocate, content creator, and founder of the Minnesota-based nonprofit SaveAFox Rescue. Her fascination with foxes began when she was a teenager.

According to Raines’s own account on the SaveAFox website. Her mother worked in wildlife rehabilitation, which gave her early exposure to caring for wild animals. Raines said she was 15 when she helped raise her first fox, a young gray fox. She later pursued wildlife rehabilitation herself and began studying to become a veterinary technician.

Eventually, fox rescue became the direction of her life. After becoming involved with captive-born foxes, Raines learned more about animals coming from fur farms, failed pet situations, and circumstances where captive foxes could not simply be released into the wild.

Those experiences eventually led to the creation of SaveAFox. Mikayla Raines became known to millions of people for something joyful: her extraordinary connection with foxes.

As the founder of SaveAFox Rescue, Raines spent years rescuing captive-born foxes and other animals. Educating people about animal ownership, and sharing the personalities of the animals in her care with a huge online audience. Her videos helped transform foxes such as Finnegan and other SaveAFox residents into beloved social-media personalities.

The Beginning of SaveAFox Rescue

Raines officially founded SaveAFox Rescue in 2017. The organization became a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated primarily to captive-born foxes that could not be released into the wild.

SaveAFox’s stated mission is:

“To rescue and provide forever homes for captive-born, non-releasable wildlife.”

The animals arriving at SaveAFox came from several different circumstances. Some had been surrendered by people who discovered that keeping a fox as a pet was far more difficult than expected. Others had been seized after being kept illegally. Some came from fur farms or situations in which they were unwanted because of medical problems, injuries, or other characteristics.

Raines and her team provided veterinary care, spaying and neutering, socialization, housing, and either permanent sanctuary or placement with appropriate homes and licensed facilities.

Why Foxes Became Her Life

Foxes may resemble dogs in photographs and videos, but they are very different animals. Raines frequently tried to educate viewers about that distinction. Her work helped demonstrate why purchasing an animal based only on its appearance or a cute social-media video can create serious welfare problems.

National Geographic profiled Raines and SaveAFox in 2019. Describing a sanctuary populated by red and Arctic foxes as well as other non-releasable animals. The publication noted that Raines had left her veterinary-technician studies to devote herself to the rescue. For Raines, saving foxes did not appear to be simply an occupation. It became her identity and life’s work.

Mikayla Raines and Social Media

Social media became essential to SaveAFox’s growth. Raines filmed the foxes interacting, playing, making their distinctive sounds, receiving enrichment, and developing relationships with their caregivers. Her videos gave millions of people an opportunity to see animals they might otherwise never encounter.

By the time of her death, SaveAFox had amassed millions of followers, with CBS Minnesota reporting that its YouTube audience alone had grown to more than two million subscribers. That online popularity helped raise awareness and support for the rescue. But being highly visible online also exposed Raines to another side of social media.

Online Criticism and Harassment

After Raines’s death, her husband, Ethan Frankamp, spoke publicly about years of negative online attention directed at his wife and SaveAFox. He described rumors, accusations, criticism, and personal attacks that he said had become increasingly painful for her. He told CBS Minnesota that some of the criticism came not only from strangers online but also from people she had once considered close to her.

Frankamp described Raines as an extremely sensitive and empathetic person who took negative comments deeply to heart. According to him, the pressure had intensified before her death. It is important, however, not to reduce a person’s suicide to one event or one group of people.

Suicide is complex, and it is rarely possible for outsiders to identify one simple cause. Frankamp’s statements describe what he believed contributed to his wife’s suffering. They should not be turned into unsupported claims that any particular individual or online comment directly caused her death.

What his account does highlight is something broader: words directed at real people online can have consequences that are easily forgotten when communication happens behind a screen.

Mikayla Raines Dies in June 2025

In June 2025, Frankamp announced that Mikayla Raines had died by suicide at age 29. CBS Minnesota later reported that Frankamp had found his wife and attempted to save her before she died.

In June 2025, that story took a heartbreaking turn when Raines died by suicide at the age of 29. Her husband, Ethan Frankamp, announced her death and spoke publicly about the mental-health struggles she had experienced. As well as the painful effect he said years of online criticism, accusations, and harassment had on her.

Her death generated grief throughout the animal-rescue community. Mikayla Raines’s story should not be remembered only for the way her life ended. She spent much of her adult life building an organization devoted to animals that had nowhere else to go.

How I found out

I was laying in bed, scrolling on my phone before i get up for the day… when I saw the news of her passing on TMZ this morning, I was in complete shock. This lady sure touched a lot of people all around the world. She was young, beautiful, was married, had a daughter and even, out of selflessness, accepted to be a surrogate for a couple who could not have children.

She loved animals from a very young age, especially foxes, who are highly misunderstood, like a lot of animals, coyotes, wolves, bears. Many more who suffer at the hands of humans every year. Mikayla was a huge advocate for foxes and she saved so many animals and offered them the best possible life they could ever hope for. She wasn’t a Youtube Star like most news sites who know nothing about her, claim her to be. She only used her platforms to raises money to help care for the animals.

The Sad Part

You want to know what’s really sad about all this ? Mikayla suffered from mental illnesses, like many of us, me included. She recognizes them, learned to live with them the best she could and even became an advocate for those illnesses. Mikayla helped a lot of people who suffered from them as well with her regular posts on her Facebook. She was like one of us, only she could use her platform to reach many more people and help many more who read her posts. This young woman was a mother, a gentle soul and cared deeply for animals of all kinds.

I have been following her for many years, when her rescue was a lot smaller. Her whole life was revolving and dedicated to the animals. I really admired her for the hard work she did and how far she managed to go. Her social media and platforms were only to raise money for the animals in her care, but still, we have people who judged her for that. They judged her for being on social media too much and for not wanting to sell her favorite truck which she had worked so hard for and had saved with her own money. They judged her for her appearance, for the way she was dressing, raising her daughter, her animals, her life, the air she breathed.

She was bullied

She was constantly being judged no matter what she did. Mikayla being the sweet, gentle, human she has always been, never ever called out people on their terrible judgement. Always having to explain herself for why she did this or did that. Unfortunately, being the human she was, she took things people told her, personally and I believe her husband Ethan, 100% that bullying led her to make the unfathomable act that led her to take her life.

You see, people on the internet are so tough, behind their computer screens, their phones, their tablets, that they pass judgement on others without ever thinking about the consequences. It’s is sad that this young woman was fighting for the well being of every animals and was taken from us for it.

Bullying

Bullying has been going on in school, work for years and years and nobody ever pays the consequences of their actions. Especially how their words can affect their victims, taking no blame for what they might have said that led to someone taking their own life. Now a mother, wife, animal advocate, has gone too soon. What is it about people trying to do some good and others rescues constantly bashing them when they have the same purpose and should be working together ?

What is it about jealous people who can’t take a pretty woman trying to do her best to live her life helping thousands of animals and mentally suffering from internet people. Who thought it was a good idea to bully her, while she has worked ten times harder than ANY of us ever will. This is disgusting. Innocent, mentally ill people with depression will continue to suffer the consequences of bullying. There is even a Reddit group basically, that was created entirely to bash Mikayla and her rescue…. Now, all of sudden, they have turned into a private group, like the cowards they are.

Taken too soon

This woman was taken too soon from us from those bullies ! I saw it every time she would post something personal on her PRIVATE personal page that had nothing to do with the rescue. People leaving nasty comments and making fun of her for trying to raise money for the animals, any way she could. Do you people even know how hard, how much work, and how expensive it is to run such a big rescue as she did ?

All of her animals had super nice enclosures, enrichment, were healthy, well fed, cared for, brought to the vet if needed. She didn’t need people’s nasty word to destroy what she had worked on hard to built.

It’s so disgusting to see humans verbally attack one another on social media instead of trying to be more understanding of all the sacrifices it takes to run a rescue, a sanctuary, to help animals that WE humans chose to neglect in the first place, or use for our own selfishness, impulsivity.

Shocking News

I too, am shocked by this devastating news. She is gone and her animals are going to miss their best friend spending time with them. Her daughter is going to miss her mother on prom night, graduation, her wedding, her first born child, all because of people who don’t have anything better to do with their own lives but to make everyone else as miserable as they are.

Her husband will never get to grow old with his wife, watch her smile, care for animals, or lose her phone in some random place. He lost his best friend, soulmate and love of his life because people who don’t have anything nice to say feel the need to spread their nastiness in real life and on the internet.

How words affect others

I could never ever forgive myself if my words touched someone so much that they would take their own lives. We only have ONE life people !!! Nobody needs you to be nasty to other people. No one needs to see you bully other people. Nobody needs to see you using that laughing emoji some like to do, because that STILL can hurt people’s feelings. It’s not about being emotional, it’s about being humans and what makes us HUMANS. It’s not that hard to understand.

Empathy is what differentiate us from evil people who enjoy making others miserable or torture and mistreat animals, for their own pleasure. It’s nothing to be proud of. I have been bullied, physically abused and you will never see me taking pleasure out of abusing innocent animals or bullying other people, because of it. It’s nothing to be proud of. It’s disgusting, nothing more. Bringing someone down because you don’t like them or don’t agree with them, is just a sad, disgusting behavior that really doesn’t make you better at all, on the contrary. Your actions have consequences and sadly, it’s often the innocent, most gentle, caring people that suffer the most for it.

Respect each other

Most of us will always have much more respect for people who care about one another, who don’t need to be nasty to others to make themselves feel superior or better. Most of us will always like the man who saves those ducklings or goslings crossing the road, not the ones who are sadistic and purposely run over them to end their lives just because they have no soul and find it funny.

Many of us will always have much more respect and love for people who shoot animals with their camera, and not trophy hunting, contest hunting or just killing animals for their own pleasure, and because it gives them a god complex.

A lot of us, especially as we grow older, have a better understanding of life and all living creatures in it and we have more respect for it. Those kind, gentle souls are the ones that make this world a better place to live in. When you bully someone to death, you take that person away from a lot of people who care for that human. It leaves an emptiness that cannot be described.

Remembering Mikayla Beyond Her Death When someone well known dies by suicide, there is a danger that the circumstances of the death overwhelm everything the person accomplished while alive. That would provide an incomplete picture of Mikayla Raines.

Long before millions of people knew her name, she was caring for wildlife.

She became interested in foxes as a teenager, obtained experience in wildlife rehabilitation, built a rescue organization, created specialized facilities, coordinated veterinary care, educated people about captive foxes, and found homes or sanctuary placements for animals that could not survive in the wild.

The Animals She Helped

Some of SaveAFox’s greatest ambassadors were the foxes themselves. Their unusual personalities, vocalizations, curiosity, and relationships with Raines attracted viewers from around the world. But behind the entertaining videos was considerable work.

Foxes require specialized diets, secure enclosures, enrichment, veterinary treatment, behavioral understanding, and caregivers prepared for their natural behaviors. SaveAFox also cared for animals that arrived with injuries, health concerns, or behavioral challenges. The organization’s own description emphasizes that its primary purpose is providing care for captive-born animals that cannot simply be returned to nature.

That distinction matters. Wildlife rehabilitation normally aims to return a wild animal to its natural habitat whenever possible. Captive-bred foxes may instead require lifelong human care because release is neither legally nor ethically appropriate.

SaveAFox After Mikayla Raines

One of the immediate questions following Raines’s death was what would happen to the rescue. Frankamp said he intended to continue the work she had begun.

CBS Minnesota reported that he planned to keep caring for the animals and pursuing rescue efforts in Mikayla’s name. That continuation is particularly important because an animal sanctuary cannot simply stop operating after the loss of its founder. Animals still need to be fed. Enclosures still require cleaning and maintenance. Veterinary appointments still happen.

Bills still need to be paid. Animals already in sanctuary care remain dependent on their caregivers every day. Continuing SaveAFox therefore preserves more than the name of an organization. It continues responsibility for living animals whose futures Raines had worked to secure.

The Human Cost of Online Harassment

Raines’s death also renewed conversations about online behavior. Social media makes it possible for millions of people to communicate instantly—but it can create an illusion that the person receiving a comment is somehow distant from the person writing it.

Creators may receive thousands of messages. Criticism can be repeated, reposted, exaggerated, stripped of context, or transformed into rumors that follow someone from one platform to another. Disagreement is not automatically harassment, and legitimate questions about public organizations should be possible.

But there is an important difference between criticism and sustained personal abuse. Threats, insults, humiliation, coordinated harassment, and persistent attempts to destroy someone’s reputation can create significant distress. Raines’s husband specifically asked people to think about the effects their words can have on another human being.

That message has become part of the conversation surrounding her legacy.

Mental Health Should Not Be a Source of Shame

Frankamp also spoke publicly about Raines’s history of mental-health struggles. Those details should be approached with care rather than treated as sensational elements of her story.

A mental-health condition does not define an entire person. Nor should suicide be presented as inevitable for someone experiencing depression, emotional difficulties, or other psychiatric conditions.

Most people experiencing mental-health problems do not die by suicide, and treatment and support can help. One useful lesson from Raines’s story is therefore not to speculate about exactly what another person was thinking, but to recognize that severe emotional distress deserves to be taken seriously.

A person who appears successful, productive, funny, compassionate, or surrounded by supporters can still be struggling privately.

A Life Devoted to Animals

Mikayla Raines built something that will continue to exist beyond her own lifetime. A teenager who once helped care for a fox eventually created a nonprofit organization dedicated to giving unwanted captive animals another chance. She used social media not simply to become known but to make the animals known.

Millions of viewers learned fox names, watched their personalities emerge, and discovered that animals require far more specialized care than a short viral clip might suggest. Some people donated. Some adopted animals responsibly through appropriate channels. Others simply became more interested in animal welfare. That reach became part of SaveAFox’s impact.

Mikayla Raines’s Legacy

For people who followed SaveAFox, Mikayla Raines will likely always be connected with foxes. But her legacy is larger than individual viral videos.

It can be seen in:

• Animals rescued from situations where their futures were uncertain
• Foxes provided with veterinary care and permanent sanctuary
• People educated about the realities of animal ownership
• A nonprofit organization established to continue helping captive-born animals
• Millions of people introduced to fox behavior and welfare
• Conversations about how people treat one another online

Her death was tragic. Her life, however, contained years of work that should not disappear behind the circumstances of her final days.

Final Thoughts

Mikayla Raines spent much of her life helping animals that could not help themselves. She turned an early fascination with wildlife into SaveAFox Rescue, an organization that became known far beyond Minnesota and attracted millions of followers around the world.

Her death in 2025 caused tremendous grief among her family, friends, colleagues, and the online animal-rescue community. It also prompted difficult conversations about mental health and how people communicate online. Those conversations are worth having—but they should not become the only thing remembered about her.

Mikayla Raines was an animal rescuer, mother, wife, creator, and advocate whose work changed the lives of many animals. Perhaps the most meaningful way to remember her is through the mission she spent years building:

Giving animals that had nowhere else to go another chance at life.

If you or someone you know in the United States is struggling with suicidal thoughts or experiencing a mental-health crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. If there is immediate danger, contact emergency services.

SaveAFox also became a recognizable voice against impulsive pet ownership. The adorable fox seen in a short internet video does not demonstrate the challenges involved in actually caring for one. Through both rescue and education, Raines showed people the consequences when animals are purchased by owners who cannot meet those needs.

Heartbreaking post from Mikayla’s Husband, Ethan.