Skittles mystery leaves Wisconsin town seeing red over junk food diet for cows

Skittles painted a highway in Wisconsin red this week. Residents in Dodge County were baffled to find hundreds of thousands of red skittles scattered across the main highway on Wednesday 18 January.

The Dodge County Sheriff's office said that the Skittles were discovered at 8.51pm and are thought to have fallen from a damp box in a pickup truck.

On the Sheriff's Facebook page, a post read that the Skittles were meant as cattle fodder "as they did not make the cut for packaging at the company."

Clearly amused by the bizarre discovery, the department added: "While we don't know who did this, it is certainly clear that it may be difficult to 'Taste the Rainbow' in its entirety with one color that likely fell off the truck!"

But many residents struggled to see the funny side and expressed outrage at the news.

One woman wrote: "Absolutely gross! Why are we ok with feeding Skittles to fatten cows up? Know where your meat comes from people."

Another Facebook user commented: "As a cattle rancher's daughter I can assure you this is not common practice! This is disgusting!"

Others appeared less upset by the announcement, with one user commenting: "Perhaps the skittles helped [privide] more traction on the icy roads?" Several roads in the area were closed this week due to hazardous weather conditions.