The horses were under control till “Wild Horse Annie”, back around 1970, screamed and hollered and got laws passed forbidding the catching and turning horses into dog food and steaks for Europeans passed.
Now people who have horses find no market for them when they get old, or bored with them, so they abandon them by simply releasing them in open range areas or forests.
Much like the destruction of the market for emus led to wild roaming emus everywhere.
In 1962, while driving through a small town in Sweden, we stopped at a restaurant to have dinner. On their English-language menu, the meal that was featured for the day was labeled, "force meat." We had to grill the waiter before we were satisfied that the menu item was not a misspelling of "horse meat." It turned out to be ground beef.
There’s emus roaming freely, where?
“Much like the destruction of the market for emus led to wild roaming emus everywhere.”
I’ve seen one Emu in my neighborhood, a friend saw one at his place about 10 miles north of here. And a neighborhood 10 year old took an Emu egg (her daddy found while hunting) to school for show and tell. They’re around. Coyote too, but I’ve only spotted one of those heading into a Newport News neighborhood (looking for cats or rooming dogs) late one night while heading towards north to my peninsula.
Oddly enough Virginia doesn’t seem to have a wild pig problem, but SC sure does, we hunt there a few times per year.