Try -- to sign end of options. This is a general rule for such problems, e.g.
To grep -3 try:

grep -- -3 ...

If yoy want to remove a file named -panos you give:

rm -- -panos

etc.

This fact is true due to getopt function. This function is used by system programers
who write tools like grep, rm etc. The function marks end of option with a double dash
(--), so the behavior is similar for all tools using getopt to process options.