There’s an awful lot of fossil equines that call that BS. If anything, they were one of the many species terminated by human migrations onto the continent with the last, nearly identical to domesticated horses genetically, becoming extinct between 10-15K years ago at the end of the Pleistocene.
If we were to follow bureaucrat logic (that any thing “non native” needs to be aggressively eradicated) to its end, they have a damn sight better claim to being “native” here than people do...
If the government needs to devote resources to getting rid of introduced biological mayhem maybe they should work on the crap like tumble weed, star thistle, cheat grass, zebra mussels, mitten crabs etc... First and when they’ve chalked up some success (snort, ha ha) we can talk about it...
I am well aware that there were equines on the continent in the prehistoric past. That does not mean that current feral horses can be considered native.
“they should work on the crap like tumble weed, star thistle, cheat grass, zebra mussels, mitten crabs etc...”
Asian carp, walking catfish, boa constrictors, anacondas, pythons, snakeheads, Canadian thistle...