Idaho standoff neighbor: 'It's very bad with the dogs'

Mary Peters speaks to CNN's Daryn Kagan on Thursday about a standoff in Idaho involving six children

BONNER COUNTY, Idaho (CNN) -- Police continue to wait for the surrender of six armed children holed up in their home with 27 vicious dogs in Idaho's northern panhandle.

The children have refused to come out of the home since Tuesday after they released the dogs on police who had arrested their mother. Police said the children did not want to be taken into protective custody.

The mother's husband died about two weeks ago after being bedridden in the home for several years with multiple sclerosis, police said.

One of the family's neighbors, Mary Peters, spoke on Thursday with CNN Anchor Daryn Kagan.

KAGAN: What can you tell us about this family? Is this a family that has faced increasing problems over the years?

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PETERS: Oh, yes, definitely. They have. Their father has been very sick. He's gotten worse and worse. He has -- he had multiple sclerosis. And the mother had to look after the father and the children and try to run the home. She continually got more paranoid and wanted to get away from people. She was afraid for the children and afraid any food or anything that would be brought in would be dangerous.

KAGAN: So there was a point when nice neighbors like you were trying to help out and had contact with the family.

PETERS: Yes.

KAGAN: But that has gone down over the years.

PETERS: Yes. Yes. We tried to make contact with the police and the welfare and the church. But everyone was afraid to go there because of the dogs and because maybe we'd be met with a shotgun. And we were very unwelcome. We were helpless.

KAGAN: So was there a certain point where this woman said to you and to the other neighbors who were trying to help, "Just stay out; we want to be by ourselves"?

PETERS: Yes, she just -- she told me, you know, "Don't call back. I don't want you to call back. I just want to end this ... And end it with you."

KAGAN: How isolated is the area where the family lives?

PETERS: Oh, it's very isolated. Neighbors live very far away from each other. And you can't even see up their road to see what's going on. You can't see the home road from the Garfield cutoff road or anything.

KAGAN: So it wouldn't be the kind of situation where, over the years, you could drive by and just check on and see how the kids are doing? These -- this family really...

PETERS: You can't do that from where you are at. You cannot do that. You can see their mailbox, but you cannot peek over there ...

KAGAN: She kept the younger kids out of school?

PETERS: Yes -- well, they were home-schooled, supposedly. But I don't know how well they were educated or what they were educated in. But she was supposedly home-schooling them. She didn't want them in the schools being influenced by anyone -- any outsiders.

KAGAN: What was believed to be the situation with the pack of dogs with people like you who live in that area?

PETERS: It's very bad with the dogs. At first, they only had a few dogs. And now I've heard that it's escalated to 27 dogs. Back when we knew them years ago, they only had, like, five dogs. And we were afraid of them then. They used to nip at our tires when we would drive up and surround the car and run in front of the car. I would think: "Well, I am going to run over one of them trying to get away."

But, anyway, we were very afraid of the dogs. I have a friend that was bit by one of the dogs trying to go over there to help. She was going to help look after the children. And the -- one of the dogs bit her ... The lady had to go to the hospital.

KAGAN: What do you think the future holds for the kids?

PETERS: Well, I hope that the kids can get help and be talked out of that and know we're not their enemies. We all love them over here. They have a lot of people that care about them here. And I hope they can realize that we're not trying to do bad to them. We're trying to help them.

And we don't want to split their family up. We want their family to have help. And I think the children are afraid of being split up.