St. Bernards Hurt Man, Echoing Attack on Wife

Two St. Bernards knocked an elderly Tarzana man to the ground, breaking his jaw, 17 years after dogs of the same breed, owned by the same neighbor, savaged his wife’s head so severely that she has had to wear a wig ever since, animal control officials reported Friday.

The man’s wife also was knocked down but was not hurt this time, said Lt. Richard Felosky of the Los Angeles Animal Care and Control Department, who said he investigated the attack on her in 1973 and coincidentally was called out on the recent incident.

“That dog just scalped her” in the earlier attack, he said. “I’m surprised she survived. When I saw it was her again, it made my hair stand on end.”

Albert Gohlke, 84, suffered compound fractures of his jaw about 9 a.m. Thursday as he and his wife, Helen, also in her 80s, were walking their small poodle near their home in the 18100 block of Rancho Street.

Felosky said the St. Bernards’ owner, Tibor Toczauer, 60, was walking his dogs when he lost control of the 120-pound animals. “They dragged the owner across the street and attacked the couple,” Felosky said. “Both were knocked down.”

Animal control officers impounded the dogs Friday, and “we plan on filing charges against the owner,” Felosky said. “There are indications that there have been other problems with the dogs.”

Helen Gohlke has been forced to wear a wig since the incident 17 years ago, said Gohlke’s sister, who asked that her name not be used.

Toczauer denied that his dogs attacked the Gohlkes, saying they are just playful. His 8-month-old puppy was trying to play with the couple’s poodle when the husband was injured trying to protect the smaller dog, Toczauer said.

“He fell, somehow,” Toczauer said. “We’re talking about a nice, old man who is very weak on his feet. I’m upset that he has been hurt. But he was never bitten by my dogs. They did not attack them. They wouldn’t attack anybody.”

Toczauer, an attorney, said he will take legal steps to get his dogs out of the animal shelter.

Toczauer said that, in the earlier incident, Helen Gohlke had sprayed the dog with a garden hose before it attacked her and that, when the St. Bernards approached her poodle Thursday, she made a move that may have startled them.

The Gohlkes declined to be interviewed, saying their attorney had advised them not to talk to anyone. Albert Gohlke was treated at Tarzana Medical Center but was not hospitalized.

“I didn’t see what happened, but I believe the dogs knocked him down, and he fell on the curb. He was not bitten,” said Regis Kennedy, a neighbor who took Gohlke to the hospital.

However, Kennedy said, the dogs “are not vicious in my estimation. They’re just huge and maybe don’t belong in this kind of neighborhood.”

Kennedy added that he does not go outside if the dogs are there because they once knocked him down, bruising his leg.

Another neighbor, Annette Kardish, said she does not let her two children play outside when the St. Bernards are there. “They chased one of my neighbors,” she said.

“We don’t want big dogs on this street,” said another neighbor, who did not want her name used.

Felosky said Toczauer also was cited Friday for not having a rabies vaccination certificate or a license for one of the dogs.

The St. Bernards will remain at the West Valley Animal Shelter until the case can be heard by a Department of Animal Regulation hearing examiner, Felosky said. That will take about three months, he said.

The hearing examiner can order the dogs destroyed, returned under safety conditions or moved out of Los Angeles County, Felosky said.