Scranton seeks court fines against a resident who has not complied with a judge’s order to remove from a Minooka home a pack of cane corso mastiffs that have been deemed a public nuisance, according to a petition for sanctions filed in Lackawanna County Court.
On June 10, Lackawanna County Judge Mark Powell ordered John Dodge to remove all of his 10 or more mastiffs from his home at 421 Campbell St. In that ruling, which came in an injunction lawsuit filed May 19 by the city, Powell determined the dogs and their handling constituted a public nuisance.
But Dodge has not complied with Powell’s order and the situation with the dogs has only worsened, according to a “petition for sanctions based on the defendant’s civil contempt of a court order,” filed June 27 by Assistant City Solicitor Mariclare Hayes. The city wants the judge to impose unspecified daily fines for ongoing noncompliance.
“Two weeks have passed since the issuance of this court’s order, which was effective immediately. Again, the defendant has not even taken the smallest measure to comply with the court order,” the petition for sanctions says. “It is the city’s belief that short of further action and/or penalty by the court, the defendant will continue to ignore the directives outlined in the June 10th order.”
A hearing is scheduled for July 15.
In a phone interview Monday, Dodge declined to comment but said he intends to explain his position to the judge at the upcoming hearing.
A breed of Italian lineage, the name of cane corso roughly translates from Latin as “bodyguard dog.”
Tension between Dodge and his neighbors over the dogs had been ongoing for about two years, shortly after he began keeping, breeding and selling the dogs at his home, according to court testimony from a May 27 hearing in the injunction lawsuit.
The city’s involvement in the matter goes back over six months. On Jan. 2, the city issued a zoning violation to Dodge for having more dogs than allowed in a residential zone on less than an acre; and because the kennel business violated the residential zoning of the property, according to the lawsuit.
After no response or appeal by Dodge, the city filed the injunction lawsuit. Dodge did not attend the May 27 hearing and did not respond to the lawsuit, according to testimony and Powell’s ruling.
According to the injunction lawsuit: The city zoning ordinance caps at six the number of pets over 3 months old allowed on a residential property of an acre or less; and the number of canines at the 421 Campbell St. property has varied, but city officials have seen “no less than 10” full-grown cane corso mastiffs and believe their numbers have reached as high as 25. Barking, the stench of excessive dog feces and safety concerns about the large dogs occasionally running loose disrupt the neighborhood, particularly neighbors Dawn and David Hafner of 2426 Pittston Ave., who have lived there 23 years and whose backyard abuts Dodge’s rear deck and yard, Dawn Hafner testified May 27.
A photo of several cane corso mastiff dogs on a rear deck of 421 Campbell St. in Scranton, as taken from a neighboring home at 2426 Pittson Ave. (COPY OF PHOTO / COURTESY OF DAWN HAFNER)
Dodge moved to 421 Campbell St. around January 2021 and around February 2023 got two dogs and eventually more over the years, and he now has about 10, Hafner testified. Excessive feces and urine in Dodge’s yard stink up the neighborhood and the dogs have exhibited threatening pack behavior that was dangerous to humans and animals when the mastiffs had gotten loose at times, according to testimony.
In the injunction, Hayes sought an order requiring Dodge to surrender or “rehome” all but two of the dogs and prove with documentation that those two are spayed or neutered. But Powell went further in his decision and ordered all of the dogs removed from the property as “the only means to abate the nuisance.”
The petition for sanctions claims that despite the removal order: Dodge has not removed the dogs; they continue to cause a nuisance from excessive barking inside the home that can be heard outside; the dogs have been locked inside for up to 36 hours at a time, resulting in barking of adult dogs and yelping from puppies for extended periods; odors from urine and feces have worsened due to summer temperatures; and the website for the kennel operation remained active with the Campbell Street address.