Boy, 10, recovering after attack by pit bull
Old Bridge woman charged by police; dog is quarantined
BY LAUREN MATTHEW
Staff Writer

OLD BRIDGE — Ten-year-old Anthony Termyna didn’t spend the past few warm spring days enjoying being a kid.

He spent them recovering, and trying not to be afraid, his mother said.

On Friday afternoon, Anthony was attacked by a neighbor’s 55-pound pit bull and bitten on the back of his head, arm, underarm and hand.

“Anthony is very sore,” said Ann Marie Termyna, his mother. “He has staples in the back of his head.”

At about 4 p.m. that day, the 6 1/2-year-old dog, Tippy, escaped from her owner’s Orchard Drive house when someone opened the door to get the mail, according to police. The dog ran to Longview Road, where a group of children, including Anthony, were playing with a ball.

When they saw the pit bull coming, the children ran. But Anthony, who has cerebral palsy, could not get away as quickly.

Anthony’s 12-year-old brother, Richard, hit the dog with a plastic sword until it left his wounded brother alone, Termyna said, calling her son “a hero.”

Tippy’s owner, Nancy Kerrigan, reportedly told police that it was actually her son who pulled the dog off Anthony, however.

The injured boy was taken to Raritan Bay Medical Center’s Old Bridge division by paramedics, police said, treated for the bites and released.

“My son is very traumatized,” Termyna said.

When Anthony goes outside, he is reluctant to leave the front stoop, she said, or to wander from her side.

Anthony has been back and forth to doctors, she said.

“I can’t even explain his emotions.”

Termyna said her son can’t sleep and has not been eating properly.

“He needs to talk to somebody,” she said.

The entire family is feeling the aftershocks of the attack, she said.

“I feel like I should’ve been outside,” Termyna said. “You never think it’s going to happen to you. We never expected this.”

The family disputes Kerrigan’s reported statement that Tippy attacked Anthony because he was hitting the dog. Termyna said Anthony did not hit the dog.

“He was running for his life,” she said.

Kerrigan, who could not be reached for comment earlier this week, told police that Tippy had never been a problem. She described the dog as a “family pet.” Though she said that Tippy had all of her shots, police found that the dog did not have a valid rabies shot or a valid registration.

On Monday, Kerrigan reportedly told police she had made an appointment for later in the month to renew the shots.

The same day, Kerrigan was served with three summonses for violating municipal ordinances and two criminal complaints.

Tippy was seized by police and placed in the Old Bridge township kennel, according to police Lt. Robert Weiss.

“There is a minimum 10-day quarantine,” Weiss said. “The dog will remain in quarantine while the investigation continues.”

Termyna had been petitioning for Tippy’s removal from the neighborhood, and now she is working on a new petition — one that would mandate the containment of the dogs.

There is another pit bull in Kerrigan’s home, Termyna said, and pit bulls should be contained in what she described as “a running cage” with a lid.

“These pit bulls can climb like a cat,” she said.

Termyna said she understands that not all pit bulls attack, and that many are good dogs, but she wants to feel at ease.

“We want to be safe again,” she said.

Though Weiss said he is unsure of the exact penalties, Kerrigan does have complaints filed against her and will have to face them.

Termyna expressed her gratitude to the Old Bridge police and to the paramedics, who she said responded very quickly.

“They’re doing a great job handling [this] right now,” she said of the police.

“We have done a thorough investigation and have done everything necessary to protect the community in that neighborhood,” Weiss said.