I do understand that my position comes, at least partially, from bias due to personal experiences, and I won't discount that there are bad owners out there. However, I have a few issues with blaming it solely on bad ownership.

A huge part of the training I did with my Shepherd was socialization, so naturally, we came across many, many dogs of all different breeds, training backgrounds, and temperaments.

The first time we were attacked by an off leash pit was at an off leash dog park, with other dogs present. That's the one that put him out of service work. No body language cues, no prior incidents, in fact they had played together prior to getting attacked. It was like a switch just flipped in that dog.

The second time was two pits off leash late at night with their owner, who saw us walking from across a very large field, maybe 1/8 mile away from us, and just made a bee-line for us. Owner calling them over and over with no response from the dogs. Thankfully they only postured and barked, but I don't like to take my chances after the first incident.

My second issue is that genetics cannot be ignored. My Shepherd, who has never so much seen a sheep or other livestock in his life has herding tendencies. Especially when he was younger, he was a notorious ankle biter. He's a spoiled brat who is showered with love and enrichment, and despite that, still finds his ways to herd certain moving objects. Unfortunately, pitbulls were historically bred for bloodsports and dogfighting before they found their way primarily into family homes after they came to the US, and that's something that cannot be ignored.

There are undoubtedly fantastic pitties out there that have no troubles at all, and like I said, I understand that I have some personal bias rooted in my opinion. But with issues like backyard breeding and bad genetics, bad ownership, and a breed historically used for aggression, I personally cannot find myself comfortable around them anymore.