Lady Gaga’s former dog walker - who was shot by dognappers back in February - has addressed the speculation on the singer “abandoning” him and the backlash over his GoFundMe page.
Ryan Fischer, 40, had to undergo surgery as a result of the attack as he tried to protect the pop singer’s French bulldogs. The pets were taken but were eventually found and returned to Gaga.
Recently, Fischer sparked online backlash after creating a GoFundMe page last month with a target to raise $40,000 where he admitted to feeling “abandoned and unsupported” in his fundraiser description.
“I had long bouts of depression and doubt and self-pity,” he added, as the former LA dogwalker told donors he would be using the money raised for a van purchase, travel expenses.
Speaking in an interview with Rolling Stone, Fischer reflected on his fundraiser, after many speculated that he was talking about Gaga.
“Everyone thought that I was setting a blame on someone, when it was all love,” he explained. “It’s what happens in trauma — all your loved ones, all your family, everyone: you feel alone.”
Rolling Stone detailed how Gaga let him stay at her home in the Hollywood Hills and “flew a trauma therapist out to work with Fischer for multiple three-day stints.”
Fischer even received the pop-star treatment when Gaga sent him “so many balloons from Italy” on his birthday that “the ICU said it’s a fire hazard.”
However, his assistant Elisha Ault claimed the support from Gaga’s team never transpired.
“They were supportive from afar — there were a lot of words of assurance, like: ‘Oh yeah, don’t worry about anything, we’re going to take complete care of you,’” she told the same publication.
“Nobody really made a point to come see him or talk to him or make contact with him.”
Even so, there doesn’t seem to be any bad blood on Fischer’s end, who said of his former employers: “They’re my friends, and I love them and they’re absolutely there for me. I have nothing but gratitude for everything.”
Indy100 has contacted Lady’s Gaga’s reps for comment.
