Attention, dogs: Your bark might take a bite out of your owners' wallets

Two German shepherds and a Belgian shepherd, to be exact.

The dogs, who live in a 20,000-square-foot mansion once owned by Russell Simmons, are at the center of the sort of neighbor-versus-neighbor dispute common in many neighborhoods: They bark, as dogs tend to do. Some might say they bark too much.

But in this wealthy suburb — where estates are buffered by acres, privets and camera-mounted, remote-operated wrought iron gates — the dog barks at man (and most anything else) story has taken on far greater implications.

Because of those three dogs, Saddle River — which, like many other municipalities, has an ordinance against excessive barking — is preparing to go even further: It is seeking to define what “excessive” means.

The borough council will soon consider a new ordinance that would make it illegal for dogs to bark, howl or yelp for more than 20 minutes straight between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., or for 15 continuous minutes at any other time. Penalties for dog owners range from $100 to $1,000. A vote on the ordinance was postponed late last week for further discussion.

While violations of Saddle River’s borough code can also result in jail time, Jerry Giaimis, the borough administrator, said that “no one is going to jail over a dog barking.”

The roots of the proposed ordinance go directly to the mansion on Fox Hedge Road, the onetime home of Russell and Kimora Lee Simmons. The house features a replica of a Loews Pitkin theater, as well as a wine cellar/tasting room.

It was purchased for $10 million by its current owner, Dr. William J. Focazio, a gastroenterologist who owns the three shepherds, who are kept behind gates emblazoned with a golden “F.”

Focazio says his dogs, one of which he says is a police-trained K-9, are mostly quiet — except when there is a visitor or an intruder. Then they bark.

“That’s what dogs do,” Focazio said. “They don’t moo.”

“It feels ridiculous,” he added. “All I know is, it is my right to have dogs, and dogs bark.” (The family has a fourth dog, a Yorkshire terrier, who is presumably not a prime suspect in the barking on Fox Hedge Road.)

Behind the Focazios live the Mone family, who reside in an approximately 5,000-square-foot home on Coltsfoot Glen. They say their household, particularly its oldest residents, both in their 80s, is woken up at all hours by the dogs.

“It’s a quality-of-life thing. Nobody gets it, unless you live it,” said one member of the Mone family, who asked not to be identified to ward against abuse or online trolling from dog lovers. Attempts were made to settle the issue neighbor to neighbor, the family member said, but when the dogs kept barking, the police were called. Multiple times.

Over the past 12 months, police have issued at least seven summonses to Focazio. One summons, issued last May, cited animals that “caused frequent or long continued loud and raucous noises so as to disturb the comfort or repose of any person in the vicinity.”

The Focazios believe the citation in May was unfair and that the dogs barked at the summons writer, Darlene Mandeville, the borough’s environmental health specialist, because she stood at the gate for a prolonged period observing them. “That’s what they’re supposed to do,” Focazio said.

Not long after the Focazios moved into the home, an intruder invaded the mansion when Focazio’s wife, Debra, was home. The family then obtained the four dogs for protection. But Focazio said they are also the family pets. “They are part of the family, they snuggle up to you, they want to come and sit on the couch with you, they just want constant affection,” said Focazio, who said that he feels his family is being harassed and his pets unfairly maligned.

Their names? Focazio demurred.

“What kind of guard dogs would they be if you knew their names?” he said.

Focazio added that he challenged the summonses in court; fines were paid to resolve all but one, he said.

He said his family has tried to quiet the dogs, even trying bark-inhibiting collars, but they found that prolonged use caused sores on the dogs’ necks.

Giaimis, the borough administrator, has fielded many questions, phone calls and emails since the borough first began considering the new ordinance last month. Most have been critical of the borough’s stance, accusing it of anti-canine bias. Giaimis said he has responded to each attack individually, with measured explanations, sometimes going so far as to page through an out-of-town caller’s own municipality’s rules, to show that similar ordinances are on the books in many places.

“It’s been crazy,” Giaimis said. “Saddle River likes dogs.”

The borough’s new, more specific rule is designed to be simpler to enforce, Giaimis said; the old ordinance also forbade excessive barking, but did not define how much barking was legally excessive — a legal distinction that arose during the Mone versus Focazio battle, he said.

The Mone family member applauded the proposed rule change. “This is about regulating the owner; this has nothing to do with the dogs — it’s not the dogs’ fault.”

On a recent visit to Fox Hedge Road, the Focazios’ dogs were playing outside behind the house where the pool grotto is (not to be confused with the indoor pool), according to a woman who came to the gate and identified herself only as an employee of the Focazios. The street was silent.

It may stay that way in the future. The Focazios’ mansion, which appears to have retained the detailing favored by its previous owner — including a walk-in closet with a leopard print carpet, and a fireplace sculpted inside a roaring lion’s mouth — is on the market for $14,750,000, according to real estate listings.

The dogs are not included.