Zoo Invites People To Name A Cockroach After An Ex For Valentine’s Day

After the roses have wilted, the chocolates have been eaten and the flame of eternal love has died out, the holiday Valentine’s Day can be a rough one to endure for the brokenhearted and those who have been scorned.

But the El Paso Zoo in Texas has a very interesting way to perk up someone’s spirits when their love life has been crushed into a million pieces. The zoo will name a cockroach after a person’s ex and then on Valentine’s Day, the cockroach bearing an ex’s name will be fed to a meerkat. The event will be broadcast via livestream on the zoo’s Facebook page and on its website.

It may not be total redemption, but it just might make a person feel a tiny bit better. All you have to do is message the zoo through Facebook messenger with the first name and initial of the last name of an ex, then tune in on Feb. 14 to watch the pesky pest get snatched up and munched during the “Quit Bugging Me” meerkat feast.

Zoo officials consider it to be “the perfect Valentine’s Day gift” for some people.

“This is a fun way to get the community involved in our daily enrichment activities,” El Paso Zoo event coordinator Sarah Borrego told CBS News. “The meerkats love to get cockroaches as a snack and what better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than by feeding them a cockroach named after your ex!”

https://www.facebook.com/elpasozoo/photos/a.482518977621/10156975620942622/?type=3&theater

On Thursday, the zoo shared on its Facebook page that it had received such a “tremendous” response to the Quit Bugging Me event that they have decided to “spread the love” to other animals in the zoo who enjoy feasting on cockroaches.

The other animals that will participate in the Valentine’s Day cockroach festivities are the cotton-top tamarin, the golden tamarin, and the white-headed marmoset.

Facebook user Lauren Brooke Raulerson commented on the El Paso Zoo’s page about naming an ex after a cockroach.

“I hope the animals enjoy him more than I did,” she wrote with a laughing emoji.

In exchange for a donation, the Hemsley Conservation Center in Kent, England, also will name a cockroach after someone’s ex. The center’s website explained that naming a cockroach in honor of a “worthless ex” on a special holiday of love is “another way to make you feel better about getting back at your ex.”

The Bronx Zoo also offers the same satisfying option, calling it an “eternal and timeless” gift.