LANSING -- Two suspects sought in connection with a methamphetamine distribution center remain at large.

The dogs kept to guard their hideout are not.

The Mower County Humane Society and Paws and Claws, Inc. of Rochester, are sheltering the dogs left at the Lansing mobile home.

Also, Mower County has begun legal action against the property owner to have junked property that has been left behind declared a health and sanitation hazard.

"Our goal is to take the owner to court," said Daryl W. Franklin, county planner and zoning administrator.

Unfortunately, the property owner, Marie Landa, is the wife of one of the suspects, Jose Landa, who remains at large with accomplice, Pedro Calvo.

On Jan. 8, state agents and local law enforcement officers raided a trailer along the railroad tracks in the southwest corner of the unincorporated village of Lansing.

Officers seized over $100,000 worth of methamphetamine drugs.

The largest "rock" or chunk of methamphetamine drugs that Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agents said they have ever seen was found by Mower County Sheriff Terese Amazi and her K-9 partner, Tia.

Over $4,000 in cash was found hidden inside a cowboy boot and two handguns were also seized in the raid.

In addition, officers found equipment use to manufacture false identifications and false IDs for people allegedly employed at a local business.

One man, Ernesto Veraza, was arrested at the scene. He has been charged with two felony drug counts and remains in the Mower County Jail.

That leaves the dogs found at the trailer.

Jane Roden, president of the Mower County Humane Society, said two of the adult dogs are being sheltered locally.

"That's all we had room for at the shelter," Roden said, "Otherwise, we're full."

However, even taking two dogs for the Mower County Sheriff's Office has worsened the humane society's already beleaguered financial situation.

The society has asked the county for reimbursement of its expenses in sheltering the two dogs. Amazi said she will ask the county commissioners to consider a special appropriation to the society.

"I don't have the money in my budget," she said.

The society said any funds they could get would only help.

"We got $10,000 from the county and $10,000 from the city of Austin when we moved into our new shelter, but that was all," Roden said. "We don't get any money from either one anymore. We are entirely dependent upon donations."

The humane society has once before come to the aid of local law enforcement when it took more than 30 dogs seized in a raid of a rural LeRoy farm home.

More recently, the society has agreed to take all pets captured by the Austin Police Department's animal control officers; thereby saving them from being euthanized at the cost of $60 per animal.

Jay Zimmerman, treasurer for the humane society, was a part of the organization's intervention after the raid last week.

"The Paws and Claws organization took three adult dogs and all of the puppies," said Zimmerman.

Zimmerman said the humane society doesn't have the people nor the equipment to handle aggressive dogs.

"We're happy to be able to assist when we can, as long as it is known, up front. We don't have the people or the training or the equipment to take on what would be classified as truly aggressive dogs," Zimmerman said. "There's a huge difference between adoptable dogs and aggressive dogs."

Lee Bonorden can be contacted at 434-2232 or by e-mail at lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com