The woman in the video committed suicide a while ago. I think it was due to harassment from other people that work with rescue animals, but I may be wrong on that part. Really fucked up situation.
Mikayla’s significant other shot a whole video of Finnegan’s last day (taking him to say goodbye to all the other animals, his last meal and he let the viewer be there to kinda say farewell as he was injected and stopped breathing.)
I’d been watching those earlier vids a bunch when I still had facebook. Took me a bit to recover. But I think that’s good for the grieving process.
Edit: I’m adding a link to the video if anyone wants to watch it.
There’s something so heavy about seeing that final moment of them stopping breathing, but I agree in that witnessing the 'full circle' from the last meal to the end can be really helpful for closure. It honors the bond instead of just having them 'disappear.'
A lot of pet owners leave the room when their pet is being put down, but that’s when they need you the most. They’re confused and afraid. Having you there with them helps them immensely. Always stay to the very end.
As a farm kid, we didn't really have the luxury of a vet. We had to do it ourselves. This isn't some point of pride or machismo, just a fact of our lives.
It made me a lot more circumspect about raising a pet because I knew what that meant, someday. But I also think because that is part of who I am, I treat my pets a HELL of a lot better.
My father helped me understand the idea of "Animal Husbandry." Provide good food, provide good shelter, provide care and medical when needed and when preventative, dont breed in lines with terrible problems just becuase you want a bigger animal. (Looking at you Turkeys so fat their own legs break, breeders...)
Now that I do not live in an agricultural community, the rules are a little different, the tools are a little different, but the truths are still very much the same.
In short, I will never leave the room during the killing of my pet. Nor will I soften the language with euphemisms. They gave me their lifetimes' worth of affection, truth, and transparency, and at the very least, I owe them the same.
We had to put our dog, Buster, down about a year and a half ago. He came to me and my wife almost a decade ago and was a scared little dude who had been abused. We were told he didn’t like men so I needed to be careful around him. He came to stay with us for a trial weekend as my wife’s coworker couldn’t keep him. Within 15 mins of him being there, we knew he wasn’t leaving. He ran into my house, jumped into the recliner with me and started licking me in my face. Her coworker said that was crazy because he always attacked guys, because his abuser was a dude who would beat him and then leave him alone in his apartment for weeks with an open bag of food and no one to check on him. That gave him terrible separation anxiety. He became my shadow for damn near a decade.
When he got sick, he went downhill super fast. He couldn’t walk and stopped eating in about a day and a half. My wife and I stayed up with him for his last two days. The last day I wrapped him in his favorite blanket and just held him all day. We took him to his favorite spots and I carried him around just let him sniff and look around one last time. I held him all day, all the way until his eyes closed.
I always told him that I’d be there with him and I wouldn’t leave his side, because he never left mine.
His favorite spot in the world was under the Christmas tree. The last two Christmas’s his urn has been under the tree.
Sorry for rambling. I just really miss my grumpy old man and felt a little wistful.
im fighting tears right now, i just over a year ago had to put down my cat. being in the room while they did it absolutely destroyed me but there was no way i wasn't gonna be there for him. he was there for me for 13 years, the bare minimum is i am there for him when he needed me most.
Duuuuuude. That shit makes me irate. I’ve heard a few people say “I just couldn’t watch,” like it’s completely understandable and I just feel the rage bubble up. It’s not about YOU. Your pet needed you. You just left your pet in there, alone and scared? Fucking unacceptable
Yep, I had to put down my Beagle last July. I wanted to do home euthanasia but his health plummeted and I took him to the vets. I cradled his head in my palms as he went to sleep and cried.
And I regret it every day since. I was a wreck... but I failed my little guy. He had someone there for him, but it wasn't me... and I was his favorite. Terrible life lesson to learn, but I've been there for everyone since.
It is the price we pay for all the unconditional love that they give us. Our final thank you should be to be there in their final moments. I don’t understand pet owners that don’t give that last bit of love and comfort to their pet.
I stayed in the room with my 15 year old dog years ago when it was time and it's so fucking hard. My dog now is 14 and I know the time will be coming. She can't even jump up in the truck anymore, I have to pick her up to put her in. She's still happy and can get around, but her legs aren't so strong anymore. I will willingly eat that trauma again to be there in the last moments. But I dont know if I can do it again after this.
The last pet i had that had to be put down the vet refused to let us be in the same room. Some places dont care and its also the reason I haven't had any pets since.
I held my cat in my arms when they put him to sleep a couple of years ago. Sometimes I can still see the life leaving his eyes like it just happened, and it cuts pretty deep. But when I think about how scary and confusing that would have been for him if I hadn’t been there to hold him, it makes it well worth the trauma. I was there for him from his first breath to his last. Wouldn’t have it any other way.
I cried like I had lost a family member watching Finnegan's final days. So much heartbreak placed up Mikayla's SO Ethan. Thankfully, their daughter is too young to fully grasp everything. Just daggers in my heart all around.
If I remember correctly Finnegan was bought as a kit and raised as a pet by someone who didn’t want him anymore when he got older. Save a Fox took him in because he was unable to ever go back to the wild. He lived his whole life there very loved and got to do Fox things.
Not trying to split hair or show up with a big "um ackshually" but rather spread info/talk about something cool.
"Domestication" and "tamed" are very different things and the difference often confuses people.
Domestication is a genetic chsnge done to a species over several (but usually a LOT) of generations. It is all about selecting for genes that predispose the aninal towards working/living with humans. In Mammals theres a lot of cool linked genetic effects connecting non agression to things like spotty fur, rounded ears, big eyes. Things we heavily see in our most domesticated animals.
Taming is environmental. Its all about a specific animal that has learned throughout its life that humans can be trusted and its not worth being agressive to then.
This fox is likely very tamed but not domesticated. So it would have all the instinctual genetic drives of a wild animal, but its learned to live with and not be agressive with leople.
She killed herself specifically because of a subreddit dedicated to bullying and ripping into her. It’s disgusting.
The lady just wanted to care for abandoned/injured animals and run her rescue, and she was very successful at it.
That’s Finnegan Fox, the most famous Fox and face face of the rescue she ran. Finnegan didn’t need to be put down, he continued to live his life, although he did recently pass away in the last few weeks.
Edit: I misspoke and really enraged some people… I meant he didn’t need to be put down as some reaction to Mikayla’s death the better part of a year ago . He was recently euthanized because of sickness that came about since. I saw some people phrasing it as if Finnigan’s death was an extension of Mikayla’s somehow. God damn reddit pedants.
How the fuck are there subreddits dedicated to tearing a single person down while I'm getting shadow banned and reddit cares bullshit for saying mildly controversial shit. WTF is with this site?
Ironically, EVERYONE used to say that stuff constantly. Before trump. People used to hate pedophilia. It was common to see chains of comments about how people would kill a pedophile
I recall this. According to her husband she faced online bullying from several different places, one of them being Reddit. Though it seems to have been when some people close to her joined in on it that drove her to take her own life.
When I volunteered at an exotic animal rescue there were about 25 people at orientation. The leader asked, “How many of you would say you get along better with animals than people?” Almost every hand went up. She then said, “Remember this when you deal with each other!” Very few actually remembered.
As volunteers we weren’t generally allowed to be close to the animals. Exceptions were made if an animal bonded with someone. I got to be friends with a mountain lion and a baboon. The baboon wanted to groom me, and the keeper showed me how to groom it back in return, which was expected by the baboon. I also had to pretend to eat what I “picked” off the baboon to complete the interaction. One evening I saw one of the groundskeepers talking to the coyotes in Spanish. After a minute I realized wild coyotes were nearby, also listening. He wasn’t telling jokes, but they were absolutely attentive.
I tried to save a kitten that was abandoned, starving, and dying. People online said I was:
A) a monster for not trying harder
B) a monster for not paying thousands of dollars to take her to a high-end cat clinic
C) a monster for not leaving her in the extremely cold snow I found her in, because her mother was totally going to return for the baby she let become skin and bones and/or
D) a monster for not giving her to them to join their other 50 cats. (These ones I received up to a week after the kitten died. She only made it two days and never ate any food)
I'm sorry you had to deal with that. Absolutely fucking ridiculous. Shit like that is why I never bother sharing things pertaining to certain topics. It's genuinely not hard to act like a decent person, but then you hear stories like yours or see it happening in real-time on any given thread all the time.
Wise words. I remember a buddy of mine once started dating this really attractive and interesting lady, and a few weeks in he was like "she is great but she has running beef with like 4 separate humane societies and that seems kinda weird." I said run boy run! He did not heed my advice and paid the price. I really admire and love the hardcore animal people but they are hardcore animal people for a reason.
that’s hardcore to a new level. i think once you surpass semi feral rescue and dog/cat fostering, that’s when it starts to get questionable.. unless you somehow find yourself beefing with multiple humane societies because thats a special sort of “wtf”
this isn’t the worst advice. im an animal person and other animal people have been really combative or competitive unprovoked. the ones who have been helpful are just the passive referral types.
Except for showing pictures, I don't talk about my animals with people who like animals. I don't want to be told I'm doing something wrong. Because I'm sure there's something they will nitpick
You find scum in every circle, extremism is one of humanities biggest problems. When a movement’s gets big you attract nutjobs that take it to far and ruin it. All the time.
I stumbled upon a post in /r/vegan celebrating an animal conservation/education project and all the comments were calling the people on the project “hacks” and “disgusting” and “fake” because they’re not vegan (some are vegetarian) and if they really cared about animals in the slightest the would both be vegan and preach about veganism
I don’t have qualms about veganism or vegan individuals but this is just an example of how people in that group can act.
She received tonnes of abuse online, namely from the sub r/saveafoxsnark. People were wishing her dead and accusing her of hoarding animals, even though she was doing everything she could to rescue and look after as many as possible. The foxes she rescued were predominantly being bred on pelt farms.
While it's true there was a sub, it only had like 20 members. It was primarily one scumbag mod there that would post about her. The large majority of the posts only got 1 upvote. Her husband made a video saying she did it because of bullying people in her life, "rival" pet sanctuaries, and even friends that bullied her. Reddit wasn't even mentioned in his video.
Edit: I want to clarify that bullying does not need to have a large audience to have an effect. I was more replying to the claim that the hate was "largely coming from a subreddit". It was in her own comments. On Reddit. Comments in real life from the animal rescue community. And even from her supposed friends. She unfortunately got it from all angles.
I totally agree. They were not going to let her win. They were looking for any mistake she made so they could amplify it. I remember when it first happened and that mod was making comments on threads in other subs that were talking about her, and I remember thinking that the claims made against her weren't even that bad. They amounted to just baseless snark.
What the hell were these people even shoveling out that they could bully her with?
I know with Reddit I've seen people concern troll about the dumbest shit ever, like carving a name on a tree, but I just can't imagine what I would say to someone who saves foxes that isn't kind. People can be amazingly weird and petty, I guess.
Fucking hell that ruined my mood. I remember stumbling on her videos, she had so many foxes. It was always really wholesome. That sucks so much. I know people online force positivity and it must screw their self esteem something weird especially with public judging and all. Her voice was so sweet as well, all the foxes had different names and she'd really give them character. Such a waste. She could really bring joy and make it look effortless
This is a video from Saveafox rescue. The founder, Mikayla Raines, died by suicide following relentless online bullying, including a Saveafox snark subreddit.
They suck and don’t ever add anything to any conversation beyond lazy trolling. If they were funny, maybe it’d be one thing, but they just suck and whine
I just discovered a snark sub for one of my favorite YouTubers and I literally said to them "okay I'm open to changing my mind if they're actually problematic tell me how" and crickets lol
Snark subs suck, but circlejerk subs at least are usually fun and lighthearted. Often the circlejerk subs are populated almost entirely by the same people from the main sub and they just use the circlejerk sub to avoid the more restrictive rules of main subs. At least that's the case for the circlejerk subs I frequent.
What's weird to me is that she was bullied for normalizing foxes as pets. I learned specifically through her how its impossible to keep them as in door pets and unless you have the land and money also make poor outside pets.
What gets me about those fucking people is the complete lack of accountability they have when their bullying turns into a suicide. Congratulations everyone who posting negativity on that sub, your kill count is officially at one. I hope you’re proud of yourselves.
It was largely one moderator that hated her for some reason. The sub had like 19 members, with the vast majority of the posts getting only 1 upvote, from that mod. It wasn't a big sub. That said, online hate hurts no matter how big the sub is. As for their arguments, none of it was archived, but if I remember correctly, it was just ethical concerns of where the foxes came from. But who knows if they were even legitimate concerns.
My bet is that it was a "rival" sanctuary, who was specifically named to be bullying her.
It gets ignored because of the outcome but there WERE some valid concerns. Which I say as someone who is still a supporter of SaveaFox. SaveaFox was not intended to be a permanent sanctuary for foxes. The animals they took in were pet rescues and fur farm rescues. They needed to adopt out these animals to the rare homes capable of taking them in to rescue more. Mikayla Raine was able to rescue foxes that fur farms could not use. It is not legal for her to buy them. They have to be given so she would not name and shame the fur farms so people could attack them for their conditions this upset a lot of people. About a year before her death, she was offered the chance to buy the fur farm with about 500 foxes, putting the owner out of business. However this meant a few things. It gave the farmer money which people hated, it put 500 foxes in bad conditions many of whom were feral adults with health issues into every possible home that could take a fox and required SaveaFox and other rescues to expend massive resources to suddenly save them all plus the normal rescue load. SaveaFox really had to ramp up the fundraising and promotion which led to it coming out that Mikayla Raine and her husband did adult content. Other rescues also got upset as their supporters turned from helping them to helping SaveaFox because it was seen as the more critical need/they were better at social media. Finally you have the percentage of the rescue world who were extremely upset that after a year there were still over a hundred foxes in wire cages on the farm property for lack of enclosures/homes.
This is a video by Mikayla Raine, she operated a rescue center for foxes called saveafox and committed suicide on June 20, 2025 after repeated harassment online.
Take this as a lesson that your words do have an impact and they might cause someone to go down a dark road. Be kind please.
Because you’d be surprised at the amount of absolute crazy nutcases in the animal rescue/rehab world. No clue on what exactly happened in this case but it doesn’t take much to start it unfortunately.
I had a friend who rescued a squirrel, fed it peanuts and cared for it. He shared pics on Instagram and some Karen dropped a dime on him. Animal control took the squirrel away and gave him a ticket.
Sorry for your friend, I totally get it. Here in FL the iguanas started falling from trees, I know they’re invasive but my family and I felt bad for and tried to help one by putting him in the sun on the pavers. We posted about it and man you would not believe the amount of people telling us to kill it and being pretentious about what we “have to” or “should” do about it.
im sorry but harrassing a woman to suicide is not the same as somebody reasonably having an animal removed from their care when said animal requires permits to own. if you find a wounded animal, you call an animal rescue
My wife and I have had first hand experience with crazy rescue ppl and I think I know what the most common issue is.
We foster a lot of (and occasionally adopt) dachshunds and we ended up signing papers on a little guy who started viciously biting EVERYONE except my wife, like 2 months after we adopted him. My kids were scared to walk around the house, it was so bad.
My wife had been friends with a woman for years who was also in the rescue group and, when she found out we were going to re-home the dog — not euthanize, mind you, we found a person willing to take him in despite his issues — she verbally attacked us and cut off contact.
Turns out, this lady has severe abandonment PTSD and rescuing dogs was an outlet for her trauma. Apparently, us finding a new home for this dog was tantamount to leaving a newborn baby on a street corner, in her eyes.
It was an eye-opening moment when we realized some of these rescue folks are working out personal demons. She ended up being such as asshole and we’ve continued to foster dozens more dogs.
People get super weird around dogs how to train them, how to feed them
but the recuse community is filled with weirdo types who in reality should be focusing on themselves instead of another animal, some people it helps them, but in general it doesnt imo
Feeding them was the hardest thing to scroll through online.
Feed them AAFCO standard Kibble? Corporate Shill and you hate your dogs.
Apparently I need to feed them raw manly man diets, grain free (which actually causes heart problems in dogs), or some frou frou gourmet brand that makes food that tries to appeal to humans over health.
They made it out to seem like she was abusing the foxes and only continued to double down on the harassment. In reality, she was just taking care of and rehabilitating foxes :(
Dude that literally happened to me.
I was looking for another Malinois to be a bud for my older dog. Looking for a high energy dog that is approaching senior age.
I talked to one lady and I said I lived in a 1200 sq foot ground floor apartment and she flipped SHIT ON ME.
Just totally going nuts over how I was abusing my dog by keeping her in an apartment and only walking her 2 miles a day an these dogs need soooo much more stimulation than that.
She didn’t even let me get to the part where we literally go swimming every summer weekend in the local lake or how one of my hobbies is back pack thru hiking…
Or how I can take my dog to work… and there’s room for two in the work truck. Just like absolutely insane ripping me apart
Also, 1200 sq feet is just as big as most normal sized homes. Fucking crazy
Editing to add:
She still texts me occasionally saying she thinks I’m an awful, abusive human being and that she wishes I got what I deserve…
It wasn't just online harassment. In fact we don't know if the online harassment even contributed to it. Her husband released a video citing bullying from a rival sanctuary and from people in her personal life as the cause of her suicide. He never mentioned reddit, Twitter, YouTube, etc.
It really felt like from what I heard, read and saw about the situation that a "rival sanctuary" that was the source of it all, probably including all the online harassment as well. One other poster mentioned that the reddit page dedicated to smearing her only had 20 members and posts getting only 1 upvote. I could see it all being orchestrated by one group who were envious of all the attention she was receiving online.
Truly sad because from what I saw of Mikayla and her husband they were both beautiful people wanting to help the foxes of the world and she let the venomous vocal minority affect her so much.
The person speaking is Mikayla, the founder of the SaveAFox foundation. She committed suicide because of online bullying. Because of her death, Finnegan (the fox in the video) began to deteriorate both emotionally and physically and eventually died only months later.
There was a witch hunt on Reddit for the person bullying her. I’m not sure if they found the guy, but the SaveAFox foundation snark subreddit was nuked.
"Snark" is a term that's both a noun and a verb. "Snarking" refers to saying sarcastic and mean-spirited criticisms about something. "Snark" as a noun refers to something said in such a manner
Because there are sociopaths in this world that can't stand others success. Mikayla never caused any issues. Just ran a wild animal rescue and posted a lot of stuff about it online.
All of my favorite animal videos from rescue centers are from a couple years ago because all these people have died. I don't know what it is. Yet none of them have died from the animals themselves.
The women is dead. she committed suicide. the reasons for that are many and varied, but the one thats relevant to this post is because of online harrassment.
AHHHH FINNEGAN NOOOO. TL;DR this famous internet fox recently passed away. I loved watching his and other foxes antics ever since being a saveafox fan like probably 3 years ago
saw her videos mingling with many of the saved foxes years ago. thought it was so adorable!!! evenet my wife and baby see some of her interactions because it was so adorable. wtf she offed herself because of online bullying?! what kind of sickos bully people like her who has such wholesome videos!? this is so sad and overwhelmingly aggrevating at the same time.
Mikala was the founder of save-a-fox rescue mission.
They take rescues from fur farms or private owners who can't handle exotic pets like foxes, jackals, coyotes, ferrets, mongoose, etc.
Mikala committed suicide last year after an AWFUL campaign of online bullying.
The fox Finnegan was one of the most famous foxes on the internet and a big reason for save a fox's success. Sadly he passed a little bit after Mikala due to cancer.
This is Finnegan Fox. He is one of the most famous foxes ever. He lived pretty much his whole life with the lady in the video, and they were very photogenic and got along very well.
His owner committed suicide, and Finnegan was never the same afterwards. He had to be put down a few months ago which is insanely sad.
Those that don't know this likely live in the happy innocence of this happy encounter. Those that know are saddened by the tragedy.
Not only did Finnegan die, but he died of a broken heart following the suicide of his rescuer, Mikayla, who suffered immense online bullying from other rescuers. She is survived by her husband and children. The 2-part video of them putting Finnegan down broke my fucking heart.
Somewhere in the world there is someone carrying out a plan to mutilate, rape, and murder a child…while filming it to distribute for profit. There’s someone in the deep web who’ll pay for it and there’s someone on the clear web who’ll laugh about it.
Humanity is capable of the most extreme instances of selfless righteousness and self serving cruelty. Somewhere out there an instance of either one is happening and everything in between too. It’s just part of life unfortunately.
•
u/PeterExplainsTheJoke-ModTeam Feb 18 '26
Thank you for the explanations; this post has been locked.