[bbfan1991]

A city in Taiwan is rewarding people who pick up dog poo by entering them in a lottery.

The initiative, which began in August, has proved to be a success, cutting the amount of faeces on the streets of New Taipei City by half, according to BBC News.

Each bag of dog poo was rewarded with a lottery ticket. In the end, around 14,500 tickets were given to 4,000 people.

Prizes were handed out to 85 randomly-drawn winners. One woman won a gold ingot valued at $2,200 (£1,400) while others won household appliances.

The city has no intention of starting a second lottery at present.

Officials said that money is an issue and that they hope the public will continue to clean up excrement without any form of reward.