State worker investigating dog attack is mauled to death by pack of animals while trying to contact the owner

A STATE worker was mauled to death by dogs while she was investigating a prior attack.

Summer Beard, 58, was reportedly trying to contact the dog's owner about the prior incident when the animal attacked her.

The owner Brandy Dowdy has since been charged with manslaughter.

Beard's body was found by deputies in a rural area near the Mississippi State line.

She was a longtime employee of the Alabama State Health Department and worked there for almost 17 years.

“Summer was known to her coworkers as an exceptional person. She was a tremendous team worker and was loved by those who knew her,"  Ryan Easterling, the director of the ADPH’s Health Media and Communications Division, said in a statement.

Beard was in the area where her body was found investigating another dog attack that happened recently.

The other woman from that attack was hospitalized in Mississippi with serious health conditions.

It's reported that her neighbor wanted her dogs to attack her, according to

It's typical for state employees to do follow-ups in the area where a dog attack happened due to health concerns.

Some dogs have the potential of carrying rabies, according to the local news outlet.

Police believe that the same dogs that mauled Brown attacked other residents.

It was reported that another person suffered minor injuries from the attack.

Dowdy, 29, was charged with manslaughter and is being held without bail.

In March, a dog-sitter suffered from severe injuries as the dog she was watching bit her 800 times.

Last year, another dog attacked a couple who recently adopted it.