ED HOUSE - It's 10:30 a.m. and Mark Andy Santee isn't dressed to work on the farm.
He's wearing pressed khaki trousers, a blue button-down shirt and a matching tie - not what he'd normally put on to muck around on his Putnam County farm, but here he is. His dark brown loafers, normally reserved for a quiet day at his commercial real estate office, are caked with mud.
"Friday is my last day. I'm taking a leap of faith - no income," Santee said. "I'm quitting to take care of my animals."
Local humane officials returned Wednesday morning to A&A Farms. Santee runs the farm, an operation he describes as a "rescue farm" for unwanted and neglected farm animals. The day before, officials seized more than 100 animals from him.
Jessie Shafer, the development director for the Kanawha-Charleston Humane Association, said many of the animals were neglected and needed to be rushed to a veterinarian.
Nearly seven months ago, Santee wanted to transform his life to focus on a 17-acre farm he named after himself and his wife. The couple has since separated. Santee has moved out of a comfortable subdivision in Kanawha County and he'll soon be unemployed, all to center his life around the farm.
"It's not going to be A&A Farms no more. Clearly that's not going to work," Santee said. "Now it's just me - just Andy's farm."
Shawn Martin, a humane officer at the Putnam County Animal Shelter, said the investigation into Santee's alleged neglect of the animals is ongoing. No criminal charges had been pressed against Santee by Wednesday evening.
Because of how many animals the shelter had to catalogue and inspect, Martin said, any charges would come only after vets had time to look over all of the seized animals and assess their condition.
Putnam County Sheriff Steve Deweese said the shelter is handling the investigation and would decide if Santee will be charged.
The shelter first got word of Santee's alleged neglect from neighbors who complained that his horses kept getting loose and running down the road, according to Martin. Then, another person complained that Santee recently took a sick coonhound dog to the vet but refused to have it treated.
"Some of the animals are in bad shape, some of the animals are in good shape," Martin said. "The horses and the rabbits were in worse shapes than some of the other animals."
When humane officers arrived at the farm Tuesday, they found the same coonhound dog emaciated and giving birth to pups, Shafer said.
The animal seizure was so large that the Putnam shelter had to call the Kanawha humane association for help. Several of Santee's chickens are allowed to roam free around his farm. Those birds were hard to catch, so Martin and another humane officer went back Wednesday to round up the remaining animals.
When Santee looks out over his new property, his mind races with ideas. He points to two trees at the foot of a hill, a site he wants to convert into a community amphitheater. And next to the road running up to his home, that's where he'd build a farmers market.
Santee describes himself as deeply religious. He said he believes that God has given him a mission to rescue farm animals and to use them to help autistic children and wounded soldiers. On the porch of his house, which sits about 20 feet away from the barn, someone has fashioned horseshoes into the letters that spell "Amazing Grace" in the shape of a cross.
Where did all the animals come from? Santee bought some of them - like the peacock he purchased from an Amish family in Ohio. Others, like a few pigs and the coonhound, he received from the Putnam animal shelter not long after launching the farm.
At different points throughout the morning, Santee shifts his view on what to do with the animals if he gets them back. Some, he said, are pets that sleep with him in his home. Some might help him start a traveling petting zoo. Some he wants to sell, to make back some of the money he's sunk into the property.
When humane officials arrived at A&A Farms on Tuesday, they found several dead animals. Martin said three dead animals were found and wouldn't specify what species they were. Shafer had told the Gazette-Mail that the charred bodies of two dead rabbits were found in a bonfire pit.
As humane officers cleared out the final remaining chickens, Santee ignored a cellphone that didn't seem to stop ringing. His boss, family and friends in the area kept calling him, but he never answered.
"There goes the water company, shutting off the water because I haven't paid my bill," Santee said. "That's all right, I don't have any more animals to water. I've already had my shower for the day."
Santee wanted a cup of coffee, so he scooped some murky water out of a large bucket sitting in the barn to brew a cup. He was saving that water for the rabbits.
"And they're getting ready to shut off the electric, but I don't need electric," he said. "I've got candles."
Reach Jake Jarvis at jake.jarvis@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-7939,
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