It is bad, especially where I've moved to in Arizona.
About two weeks ago we were walking our dogs and a chow mix, or that is what it looked like anyway, ran across the street and promptly attacked my pittie! Grabbed her by the throat while she tried to run in circles with this look on her face of "GET IT OFF OF ME MOMMY!" The owner came running up, not that he had a choice with all the choice words I was shouting at the top of my lungs while I tried to get his dog off of mine, shouting at -me- not to hurt his dog, it was not a violent dog, blah blah blah. He had to literally pull his dogs jaws apart to get it to let go of my dog and he was still trying to tell me he was worried my dog would attack his!
Needless to say, I let the police sort it out since my dog was leashed and battered while his didnt have a mark on it and was off lead.
It makes me sick the way people let their pets run and then blame everyone else when something goes wrong.
It is true that Pit Bulls grab and hold on. But what they most often grab and refuse to let go of is your heart, not your arm.