Maryland House minority leader Nicholaus R. Kipke (R-Anne Arundel) at his legislative office in Annapolis July 28, 2017, one week after a pit bull attacked him during a walk with his family. (Josh Hicks/The Washington Post)

With an unchained pit bull sprinting toward him, Maryland Del. Nicholaus R. Kipke (R-Anne Arundel) quickly scooped up his 20-pound miniature poodle and raised the pet to his left shoulder.

The charging dog latched onto Kipke’s forearm, biting down to the bone and yanking its head from side to side, with its legs dangling off the ground.

“The feeling of it is like nothing else, like going through a machine where your arm’s getting cut off,” he said during an interview Friday, one week after the incident.

Nicholaus, who goes by Nic and is the General Assembly’s House minority leader, had been out for an evening walk around his Pasadena neighborhood, with his wife, Susannah, and their 2-year-old, James, in his stroller — a routine he recently started to shed a few pounds.

Nic shouted for Susannah to run away; she took off with the child and ducked behind a vehicle as Nic tried to think of a safe way to release his poodle and free himself from the pitbull’s grasp.

“There was a dumpster nearby, so I thought, ‘Maybe if I throw my dog in the dumpster he’ll be safe, and I can get my other hand focused on battling this thing,’ ” he said.

Growing dizzy and tired from the struggle, Nic eventually let go of the poodle. The pit bull gave chase, promptly catching up to the smaller dog, chomping down on its hind quarters and whipping the pet around like a rag doll.

Nic isn’t sure how the attack ended, but he figures the pit bull’s owner, who was on the scene at that point, might have commanded the dog to stop.

A crew from the Lake Shore Volunteer Fire Department, of which he has been a strong advocate in the legislature, took the lawmaker to Baltimore-Washington Medical Center, where he received several layers of stitches on his arm, including 10 on the surface.

Puncture wounds also dot one of his calves and the area around the forearm gash, and he has bruises on his torso.

His poodle, which received internal and external stitches at a veterinary clinic, didn’t eat or walk for several days after the incident.

The owner surrendered the pit bull to animal control to be put down.

The mauling — which took place less than a week after the Anne Arundel Council passed a measure requiring authorities to euthanize animals deemed to be “vicious,” — traumatized the Kipke family, but Nic says the family has dealt with the situation relatively well.

On the morning after the attack, James crawled into bed with his dad to check on him early in the morning. After Nic assured him that he felt fine, the child insisted they should watch cartoons together and share a sippy-cup of milk.

“It was one of the sweetest moments of my life,” the lawmaker said.

Nic said he will carry mace for future walks and plans to review the state’s animal laws, looking for gaps in protections for the public and may introduce legislation next year to hold owners responsible for controlling their pets.

But he acknowledged that such measures would have limitations.

“You’re never going to remedy bad decisions by pet owners,” he said. “Ultimately, I don’t blame the animals.”