JAY – Tom Cerulli and his son, Gerald, 21, have had it.

They’ve sold their cows and pigs. Their farm, located off Route 4 in North Jay, could be next.

Complaints by people – to the town and to the state – about the way Cerulli cared for his animals led to his frustration.

“I bought what used to be a farm – it was always known as the Purington Farm, and I’m trying my hardest to accommodate everybody,” Tom Cerulli said Monday. “It’s not happened. I’m tired of it. The animals will be sold. We’ve been in compliance with the state. I am not going to put me and my son through it anymore. I’m tired of fighting.”

Later Monday, Cerulli said he had sold his pigs and cattle. He wasn’t sure if they were headed for the slaughterhouse.

“I sold them to a dealer. What he does beyond that, I don’t know. I didn’t have a choice in the matter,” he said.

Town Manager Ruth Marden confirmed the sale. She said a state animal welfare agent called her Monday afternoon and told her a dealer has bought Cerulli’s animals, and they will be gone Wednesday.

He said they’d be loaded onto the dealer’s trailers either Wednesday or Thursday. Either way, it should end the grousing about his operation.

The people who have been complaining about his farm are unreasonable and unrealistic. Some have made false complaints, Cerulli said.

State animal welfare agents and the Jay animal control officer had been working with the Cerullis to move the animals to better living conditions after people registered complaints with the state and town.

Most of the problem is with the field where the animals are kept. It’s partly in a flood plain zone and the land now is mostly mud with some puddles of standing water and hardly any grass.

He said he’s tried to get the water channeled onto his land through culverts to be redirected but it didn’t happen.

“I can’t take it anymore,” Cerulli said. “Me and my son have worked incredibly hard to restore the farm. No one has come to us and offered to help us. Everyone has been super critical. The only one who helped us was the Department of Agriculture. I’ve been overly criticized.”

Some older farmers and families have stopped by and were appreciative that the Cerullis were trying to get the farm back to a working farm, Cerulli said.

Code Enforcement Officer Shiloh Ring said she had been working with Tom Cerulli to either move the animal shelters outside of the flood plain zone or to go through a permit process to allow the buildings to be there.

All but one of the pigs were moved Sunday. The cattle also were to be moved, Jay animal control officer Larry Wright said Monday.

“The town has done everything we can do,” Wright said. “We’ve been working on it for a while.”

The animals are getting hay and water, he said, and the owners and state agents were working to get better and drier living conditions for them.

Maine Animal Welfare Director Norma Worley said state agents who received complaints had also been working on the housing for the animals.

Agent Sue Metzger helped Cerulli get a cow that was stuck in the mud out of it on Sunday, Worley said.

“We’re taking it very seriously,” she said.

“We probably won’t keep the farm,” said Cerulli, a former New York legal secretary. “It’s kind of hard to be on a farm and not be able to farm it. I’m broken-hearted about it. So is my son. He’s disillusioned. I think it’s a real shame.”