06/24/2025
Every day In rescue is another day of pain and heartache, dealing with animals that would otherwise be killed or that are injured or abused in some traumatic way. We try, as volunteers that have families and lives and full-time jobs outside of rescue, to push through with a smile on our face and do the best that we can. But every once in a while we run into an issue that is somehow beyond our control and we still try our best.
And in those instances, the first people to jump in are those negative people that want to tell lies and spread rumors and bully and berate and make nasty posts and spread nasty rumors and lie about things that they have not seen firsthand and honestly, it's traumatizing.
This post is about the rescue community in general, and this beautiful young woman that was bullied about things that she was trying to do for these beautiful little foxes that were in her care. And as opposed to people reaching out to help this young woman, they started making accusations and bullying her and tearing her down and spreading rumors to the point where she took her own life. How do we live in a world where a rescuer that literally saves animals lives on a daily basis, is bullied and dragged down to the point where she feels like she can't get out of that hole. Where she feels like people have just been so nasty to her that her life isn't worth living anymore?
People make mistakes. I don't know her whole situation and I don't know the story behind what happened in full detail, but I do know that people make mistakes. Every rescuer had made mistakes Every HUMAN gas made mistakes. And the first thing that you need to do when somebody makes a mistake is offer your help and your guidance and your care, not your negativity and beratiny and hateful slander. How does that help anybody? How does that help the animals? 
Whether you are an adopter or a foster or someone that is in the rescue community volunteering, just know that we as animal rescuers are all in this together. We need to stand by each other and help each other not tear each other down. And if we have a different opinion from somebody else or think that things should be done differently than what somebody is doing, reach out to them and ask them if you can help them. Share your ideas and your strengths and your experience and see if there's something you can do to help because that's the only way we're going to save ourselves as rescuers.
Please be kind and know that we are all doing our best.
Rest in peace, Mikayla. Thank you for all you did for those beautiful foxes.
Rest in Peace dear Mikayla. 💔 A video made by Ethan is in comments.🙏❤️
Please donate to Saveafox Corporation.
The wildlife rescue community recently experienced a devastating loss. Mikayla Raines, the executive director of Save A Fox Rescue, passed away in the manner that so many rescuers do: losing a lifelong battle with mental illness.
Her beloved husband Ethan posted a beautiful tribute on the Save A Fox page that I encourage you to watch, but I also wanted to share some words and thoughts of my own.
I did not know Mikayla well enough to call her a friend, but we were in touch with some regularity, and our work often overlapped, and we shared many close mutual friends in common. From people who knew her well, I heard only positive things. The public often got me and Mikayla mixed up, because we are both fox rescuers who have been open with the public about our struggles with autism and depression. I would always laugh and say, “No, Mikayla’s the pretty one.”
About a year ago, Mikayla was given an opportunity to permanently close a fur farm and save *five hundred* foxes. For someone who dedicated her life to ending the fur trade, this seemed like a dream come true, the pinnacle of her entire career. The fur farm agreed to sell her the cages at a low cost so they wouldn’t lose their investments, and she could have all the foxes for free.
Mikayla moved heaven and earth trying to get veterinary care and find homes for all of them. A lot of people love the idea of a pet fox, but few want an unsocialized fur farm fox that wants nothing to do with them. Zoos and sanctuaries took many of them. We were asked, but ultimately said no because of a lack of space. In the end, Mikayla still had dozens of them left and not enough space and resources to adequately house and care for all of them.
I heard the rumors and the gossip: critics saying that it’s wrong to take that many foxes— much less “buy” them— without a full plan for them. That may be true, but there isn’t a rescuer on this planet who has never made an impulsive decision in a desperate attempt to save lives. But I never doubted that she was doing her best and that her heart was in the right place. I felt for her because I understood how the situation happened.
But I failed Mikayla in my own way. When I saw the public and other rescues criticizing her, I didn’t come to her defense. I thought she was fine— she always looked so happy and put-together— and I thought that the criticism and harassment she faced were rolling off her back. Just one day before her death, I didn’t say anything when someone in the comments on this very page had mentioned “the fox rescue that buys foxes from fur farms.” While I know in my heart that it wouldn’t have made a difference, I deeply regret that I had an opportunity to defend Mikayla and I did not take it.
Mikayla’s husband Ethan is too polite, or too justifiably afraid of retaliation, to say the names of the people who harassed Mikayla to death, but I know them and have had my own dealings with them. One of the people primarily responsible for Mikayla’s death is a convicted animal abuser who was shut down after she hoarded, starved, and tortured wild animals. This person tried to distract from this by pointing fingers at rescues like Save A Fox and For Fox Sake Wildlife Rescue that maintain ethical and financial transparency and have licenses in good standing.
I have often told other wildlife rescuers that when documented animal abusers become your enemy, it’s a sign you’re doing things right. I just wish the public had understood this, and I wish I had used my own voice to speak up before it was too late.
To all who knew Mikayla, please accept our deepest, most heartfelt condolences for your unimaginable loss. We at For Fox Sake are thinking of you in this difficult time and here for you.
And to those who “knew” Mikayla only by following her rescue online, please channel your grief and anger toward helping the animals that Save A Fox still has in their care, so that Ethan can finish the work that his beautiful wife started. You can make a donation through www.saveafox.org.
And, please: while it’s valid and necessary to criticize “rescues” that are not rescues at all— the ones with major, documented cruelty and the ones that engage in true fraud— please check your sources and your facts before trying to destroy a rescuer’s life, because you could succeed.
Finally, this is a reminder to all that suicidal ideation is a medical symptom and a medical emergency. I am not at all ashamed to say that I have had to be hospitalized for my depression when it was too much to bear. It saved my life and it can save yours too. Please call 988 or 911 if you are in danger.
-Juniper Russo, CWR
Executive Director
For Fox Sake Wildlife Rescue
