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Hello Friends- 

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My name is Mikayla Raines, I am the founder of SaveAFox Rescue, located in central Minnesota.

 

I have been working with foxes for the past ten years. My interest and experience with wildlife started at a young age because my mother was a rehabilitator, and I would attend annual wildlife rehabilitation training classes alongside her. I was 15 when I bottle-fed and raised my first fox, a baby gray fox kit I discovered nearly drowned next to a lawn sprinkler. When I turned 18, I decided to enroll in classes that allowed me to become a licensed wildlife rehabilitator myself.  I moved on to college and began school in a veterinary technician program. While both of those paths are related, neither ended up being the path that I would ultimately choose.

 

I discovered the world of domestic foxes upon taking in a tame pet fox several years ago. Domestic foxes are unlike wild foxes in that they are born in captivity to sell as pets, as well as being bred in “fur farms” for the sale of their pelts. Foxes born in captivity are unable to be released into the wild due to legal and ethical reasons.

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Many of our foxes at SaveAFox come from fur farms, as pet surrenders, or were seized from their owners as the result of an illegal situation and then brought to us. Most of the fur farm foxes at SaveAFox are given to us because they are orphaned, have imperfect coats, sick, or injured, and therefore a liability or of no value to a fur farmer. Some pet surrenders come to us because people purchase a fox without understanding how extremely difficult they are to care for, while other pet foxes we receive were seized by authorities after being found being kept illegally.

 

It was in discovering the need for these domestic foxes to have a place to go when met with uncertain situations that I founded SaveAFox Rescue, which has been operating since 2017. To date, we have rescued approximately 150 foxes from certain death.

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I no longer rehabilitate wildlife, nor do I study or work as a veterinary technician. Instead, my sole focus is to rescue these captive-born foxes, and other captive-born exotics, and see that they are spayed/neutered/provided for all necessary veterinary needs. SaveAFox also tends to their care and socialization to prepare them to live happy lives in knowledgeable forever homes. My purpose is reflected in SaveAFox’s Mission Statement: “To rescue and provide forever homes for captive-born, non-releasable wildlife.”

 

SAVEAFOX Corporation (publicly known as SaveAFox Rescue) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, EIN 82-3454531. 

 We hold a USDA Class B Dealer license, MN DNR Game Farm license, and an MN DNR Captive Wildlife Exhibitor permit.