Bart who was brutally kicked on the boardwalk

On Wednesday, June 14th, at 3:05pm, Venice resident Laura Michele Rosenfeld took her beloved dog Bart out for a quick walk when a homeless man who appeared to be on drugs "danced" up to them and kicked Bart so hard, he flew into the metal claw of the bobcat tractor city workers were using to repair the street. As Laura screamed in horror, a good samartitan (and former firewoman) on vacation with her son jumped into action:

"The dog was not breathing. His tongue was hanging out of his mouth. There was no life in his eyes. There was no pulse so I asked bystanders to call 911 and began CPR. After about seven minutes, he started to breathe but was still unconscious. He started to display seizure-like symptoms including clonic-tonic convulsions and uncontrolled urination."

My name is (also) Laura and I live a few buildings away. After hearing screaming, I ran to help (passing the attacker along the way) and drove Bart and his mother to the VCA animal hospital on Sepulveda. On the way, Bart regained consciousness but kept moaning and seizing. He was also bleeding from his nose and mouth. It was truly one of the most heartbreaking things I've ever heard. The emergency room got him stable, but said he suffered a traumatic brain injury. The bill for just that night was almost $3,000 (photo attached) and today's follow-up bill was for another $1500. Until Bart can leave the critical care unit, the bills will keep adding up.

Bart's mother is, of course, sick with worry and shock. All she wants is for her baby to recover. I have set up this Go Fund Me in the hopes that our community will rally around one of our own and help in any way possible. Every cent donated will go right to paying off the vet bill, but if people feel more confortable donating directly to the VCA animal hospital, I can ask them how to do that.

Thank you for reading this, and for any help you can offer. This is a particularly horrific story, but living as close to the beach as I do, I'm sad to say that it's not as shocking as it should be.

Laura

UPDATE:

Barty is doing a tiny bit better today thanks to all of the good wishes and his mother that spends every moment of the two separate visiting hours by his side. The swelling in his head is going down, but he still cannot stand on his own. The staff is hopeful that time will change that. In the meantime, he is being monitored 24 -7 thanks to everyone’s generosity in donating here and also directly to the hospital. I requested an up-to-date bill for transparency and I’m working on making the donations go straight to the hospital.

I will post another update tomorrow, but in the meantime, I wanted to pass along this message from Bart’s mother:

“From the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank everyone for helping me save my doggie. He has a very long road of recovery ahead but I will be with him every step of the way and I’m touched by the amount of support.”

❤️