Ryan Fischer, who was shot while working as Lady Gaga’s dog walker, is appealing for financial help online, saying he has no vehicle or apartment and has “run out of savings.”
He wrote that after “surviving on donations from generous loved ones, I am humbly asking for your help.”
Fischer was shot and injured in February while walking the pop star’s dogs in Hollywood, which he described in March as a “very close call with death.”
In the description of the GoFundMe page Fischer created Monday, he said that after spending several months traveling America in a now-defunct 1991 Ford Falcon camper van, he is fundraising online with the goal of “getting a van and exploring this country while seeking out communities that support the process of growing from trauma.”
“For me, this includes retreat centers, trauma programs, queer healers, creatives and spiritual leaders,” Fischer said, further adding that the $40,000 fundraiser would go toward “supporting a van purchase, travel expenses.”
Fischer did not immediately respond to a NBC News request for comment.
In a post describing his fundraiser, Fischer says he has been traveling across the country in the Ford, named Trudy, for two months.
“At times I was scared. I was lonely. I felt abandoned and unsupported. I had long bouts of depression and doubt and self-pity. But those backroads that took me to desert campsites and Walmart parking lots and rest stops and friends and family to New York and back began to help me see why I had chosen to leave the security of the Hollywood Hills where I fought for my life and mobility.”
Fischer was shot and robbed on Feb. 24 while walking Lady Gaga’s three French Bulldogs, two of which — Koji and Gustav — were stolen during the incident.
The singer, songwriter and actor offered a $500,000 reward for their immediate return.
“If [the thieves] are listening, please don’t hurt those dogs and please return them. They haven’t done anything wrong,” Gaga’s father, Joe Germanotta, said after the incident.
The dogs were returned unharmed days later when a woman dropped them off at a Los Angeles Police Department station.
In April, five people were arrested and charged for their alleged roles in the shooting and dognapping.
Los Angeles police say that the dogs were targeted for their high value, not because of their connection to Gaga.
“Detectives do not believe the suspects were targeting the victim because of the dogs’ owner,” Los Angeles police said in April.
“However, evidence suggests the suspects knew the great value of the breed of dogs” and that “was the motivation for the robbery.”
