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SANDPOINT, Idaho (CNN) -- A county prosecutor said Tuesday a house where five children staged a standoff with police last week was covered with feces and trash and contained five weapons. He rejected their mother's demand that a child neglect charge against her be dropped.

"Not a chance," said prosecutor Phil Robinson. Describing the house conditions as "abominable," he said dog feces covered the basement of the house and was matted into clothing on the bedroom floor, and there was food rotting in some sinks.

"I wouldn't put my dog in that house," he said, after emerging from the Bonner County Courthouse, where a closed-door shelter hearing that is to determine where the children will live for the immediate future was continued until Monday.

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The children -- who range in age from 8 to 16 -- have been in state custody since the standoff ended peacefully Saturday.

Through her attorney, JoAnn McGuckin, 46, released a statement, disputing the state's charge of neglect and calling for the return of her children:

"Those are my kids. The state needs to mind their own business and leave ours to us. There will be no bargaining because there is no valid charge. I refuse to accept any implication that there is a valid charge when there is not. May God bless you, to all those watching."

Attorney Bryce Powell said medical blood tests indicated the children were not malnourished, and that Kathryn McGuckin, 16, the eldest daughter, told him that the children were never mistreated and just "want to go home" with their mother.

McGuckin's attorney Bryce Powell says he will seek to have the charge dismissed.

Powell said he will seek to have the charge against McGuckin dismissed and that Good Samaritans have offered to help, even buying back the house that the family no longer owns.

Powell said the condition of the home was a result of standoff.

"I don't think that's evidence of anything except how deplorable the conditions were that the state put those children in. They laid siege to the house," Powell said, adding that 15 dogs, one cat and the children were in a house with no running water.

Earlier, Robinson disputed the suggestion that the standoff itself led to the conditions at the home.

"It's pretty obvious this didn't happen in five days," he said.

The shelter hearing was continued, Robinson said, because more information is needed. He did not elaborate.

Robinson said the children will "go to a foster home whenever they later leave the hospital setting." A spokeswoman for Bonner General Hospital said the children who remain are in good condition.

The standoff began last week after police arrested the mother. Powell said she was lured out of her home with the promise that she would be able to place a phone call to seek some help for her family from social services offices.

McGuckin is charged with felonious neglect for failing to provide her family with food or electric power. The children's father, Michael McGuckin, died May 12. His death was attributed to dehydration and malnutrition, complicated by multiple sclerosis.

Five of the six children held police at bay using a pack of vicious dogs. Police also feared the youngsters were armed. A sixth child, Benjamin, 15, walked to a neighbor's house Friday and was taken into custody. He has been placed in foster care. The other children are Mary, 13; James, 11; Frederick, 9; and Jane, 8.

Robinson said authorities recovered five guns and ammunition from the house Monday; the search of the property continued Tuesday. Some of the dogs were taken to an animal shelter Monday and more would be rounded up Tuesday, he said.

The mother did not attend Tuesday's aborted hearing, and her attorney cited her health as a reason.

McGuckin has refused to sign a bail agreement and leave jail despite a judge's order Monday to release her on her own recognizance. She faces a felony charge of child neglect, which she disputes.

McGuckin has said she won't leave jail until the state drop its charge, apologizes and reunites her with her children, something prosecutors refused to do.

She is scheduled to appear in court June 13 for a hearing on the child neglect charge.

The McGuckins lost their home to a county tax sale last September, The Associated Press reported. The current owner has asked authorities to keep the family out, Robinson said.

The AP reported that animal control officers on Monday managed to capture four of the released dogs. One officer was bitten in the leg by one of the dogs, which were taken to an animal shelter. The Humane Society will care for the animals and they will not be destroyed, authorities said.