Thomas Early

Name:
Early, Thomas Scott

Date of Booking:
07/21/2025

Reason(s) For Booking:
CRUELTY TO ANIMALS

Officer’s Narrative:
[Please note: The following is a direct transcription from the official initial incident report. The Georgia Gazette does not fix any spelling or grammatical errors that may exist. Any changes or redactions made by our staff are placed inside brackets. Some errors may exist. All subjects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The topics discussed may be sensitive to some readers. Discretion is advised.]

On 7/15/2025, I met with DNR Inv. David Wright at FCPD station in reference to an animal cruelty case. Wright advised me that a Snapchat video was brought to their attention by a subject out of state. Wright advised that the video was of two individuals that set an opossum on fire. The video shows that the animal had been trapped in a cage and as soon as it was released from the trap it was set a blaze then let go and it ran off, completely engulfed in flames. It would appear that the opossum was covered in some type of accelerant in order for the opossum to ignite so quickly. Wright advised that he started tracking down whose phone it is by speaking to several teens until he found a female in Catoosa County who advised Wright that she got the video from [JUVENILE #1] Wright spoke to [JUVENILE #1] in May of this year and [JUVENILE #1] said that he sent the video out, but that he had gotten it from YouTube.

Wright then got a search warrant for [JUVENILE #1] Snapchat account and saw where the video was shared and what appears to be [JUVENILE #1] father, Thomas Early, lighting the opossum on fire. Wright discovered numerous other videos to include videos [JUVENILE #1] had taken while at school, damaging property. Other videos show both [JUVENILE #1] and father smoking illegal substances such as weed and THC wax through glass smoking devices. There were also several videos from [JUVENILE #1] phone of him and Early torturing one of their family cats, an orange cat named Tiggy. On of the videos shows Early in the kitchen taunting the cat. I observed Early aggressively holding the cat up against the cabinets, while telling the cat to let go, however, it didn’t make sense to me why the cat would be or could hold on to a hard, flat surface like that, which leads me to believe that he was taunting him. Early then smashed the cat’s paw in between the cabinet door and the cabinet and held it there. When Early finally released the cat’s paw, the cat dropped down to the counter and tried to hide in a corner on the counter top.

Early “attempted” to get the cat off of the counter because “he sh*t on the counter”. The cat wouldn’t move so Early went and got a pellet gun and fired it at the cat. According to a later conversation with Early the gun wasn’t loaded, it was just to scare the cat. Early was able to get hold of the cat by it’s scruff and aggressively throws it to the floor. Another video shows what appears to be Early standing outside the house at a screen door and the cat was on the inside at the screen door. Early had a full laundry basket in his hands and, after making his way inside, he smashed the laundry basket down on the cat that appeared to just be trying to get out of the house.

Another video shows Early slightly opening the screen door to let the cat out, but as soon as the got about halfway out of the door, Early slammed the door shut on his midsection preventing it from going anywhere. You can clearly see the cat struggling to free himself. The cat was finally able to his way out of being trapped by backing up inside the house. Early saw the cat at the door, clearly wanting to get out. Early proceeded to crack the door open enough for the cat to get through, however you see Early violently kick the outside through the barely open door. [JUVENILE #1] and Early were laughing and taunting the cat the entire time. You can clearly hear [JUVENILE #1] on the recording say “dad versus the orange cat”.

I went to Early’s place of employment for a follow up on the situation. I asked Early if I could talk to him for a few minutes, to which he agreed. I advised him that I had gotten a complaint about abuse of his cat and that I had seen a video that appears to show he and his son were abusing his cat. Early told me that he doesn’t abuse his animals and that the actions in the videos were just him trying to get the cat to go back outside. Early advised that he has 3 feral cats and they don’t come into the house unless one of the doors is left open. I asked Early about what appeared to be him smashing the cat’s paw in the cabinet door and holding it there and his excuse was that he was trying to get the cat to let go of the cabinet.

I then asked about the incident with the laundry basket and that it appeared that he was smashing the cat with the laundry basket. Early advised he doesn’t really remember that, but that he may have been trying to trap the cat so he could let him out. I asked about him throwing the cat down onto the floor, but he denied any wrongdoing. Early down played the events and denied ever harming his cats. He then proceeded to name drop people I could talk to, a former officer and former fire fighter, who could attest to the kind of person he is and that he would never hurt animals.

Early was talking fast and constantly and offering up random information that was completely unrelated to the situation, which makes me think feel like he’s nervous about something. Early also had white in color saliva on the inner corners of his mouth and on his lips, which can be consistent with drug use, such as the drug use that was videoed by [JUVENILE #1] Early told me I can come by the house anytime to look around and check out the cats; He said he works Monday through Saturday until 1900hrs.

After talking to Early, I felt I had enough cause to secure a warrant for misdemeanor animal cruelty charge. On 7/21/25, I secured the warrant. Capt. Bohannon and I executed the warrant at Early’s place of employment. I placed him in handcuffs and he was patted down before being placed in the backseat of my patrol car. I transported Early to the Floyd County Jail without incident.

[End of Narrative]