“There is a difference between bites and maulings,” Taylor explained. “In the last two weeks we have seen the worst of what I hope we would ever see.”

Taylor said that three recent dog attacks in Polk County are far worse than the typical dog biting incidents that seem to increase during the summer months.

Most recently, on the afternoon of July 4, a dog bit a two-year-old female in Rockmart, according to Polk County police reports.

The dog was described as a bulldog and hound mix and reportedly bit the child in the head, causing a laceration from one side of her head to the other. She was transported to Floyd Medical Center by Polk EMS.

For public safety reasons, the dog was seized and quarantined by animal control.

A 58-year-old woman was also attacked recently, this time on Johnson Lake Road on June 26.

Polk County police reports state that the “medium sized black dog” reportedly came out of the woods at the woman’s residence and bit her in the left bicep and the left ankle. The victim also received a scratch to her back and the base of her neck.

According to Taylor, the victim required 26 stitches after the attack.