Dog Poop Lottery Draws Thousands in Taiwan

An innovative scheme to keep the streets of northern Taiwan clean has seen thousands of citizens dutifully collecting bags of dog poop in the hope of winning $2,000 in gold.

More than 4,000 residents of New Taipei City, which surrounds the capital, have signed up for the competition since it was launched in early August, and have so far collected 14,000 bags of the stuff.

"The outcome of the campaign beat all our expectations," Lai Lien-chueh, from the city's environmental protection bureau, told Agence France Presse on Wednesday.

Those taking part in the scheme were given one lottery ticket for each bag of dog waste they collected, with the top prize in the draw including gold ingots worth around Tw$60,000 ($2,000).