“The horse-drawn carriage service at Reggio di Caserta has ceased,” the palace’s management said in a statement.

The carriages used to transport visitors around the large grounds may be replaced with electric golf buggy-style vehicles.

The announcement comes after a horse collapsed and died as it pulled a carriageload of tourists in the midday sun on August 12.

Temperatures in Caserta have been as high as 34°C in recent days.

Images of the animal, which is believed to have suffered heat exhaustion, were quickly shared on the internet with campaigners branding it “shameful” and “a meaningless death for business, entertaining tourists, and maybe taking a selfie”.

Local prosecutors are reportedly considering pressing charges of animal abuse against the company operating the carriages.

The Association for the National Protection of Animals (ENPA) also threatened legal action.

“It’s absurd that nowadays we still use animals for these purposes… even in the light of accredited scientific knowledge that demonstrates, without doubt, that animals suffer exactly like we do,” ENPA vice president Massimo Pignoni said.

Regional Greens councillor Francesco Emilio Borrelli, who took the pictures of the horse, called for an end to the “barbaric and shameful” carriage rides.

“If we humans suffer a lot from the heat at this time, imagine what it’s like for horses carrying a carriage full of people under the sun,” he said.

He called for the municipal police to enforce any orders prohibiting horse-drawn carriages riding during the hottest hours of the day, to introduce them to areas where they did not currently apply, and to parks and historical monuments in general.

This was just the latest in a string of such incidents across Italian tourist hotspots.

High-profile incidents include the 2008 death of Birillo the horse, near Rome’s Colosseum, which was captured on camera.

Then in 2012, another horse collapsed on a 40°C day as it carried tourists in Rome’s Piazza di Spagna.

In September 2017, dramatic images showed a horse collapsing in Sicily as it pulled a newly married couple up a hill.

There have long been campaigns against the practice across Italy, but they seem to have had little impact.

In Rome, the carriages are still used despite a law aimed at removing them being passed back in July 2019, and much-trumpeted announcements that the animals would be moved to parks.