To those who still cannot get over their past relationships this Valentine's, some zoos in the United States are offering a special service where people can name a cockroach after their ex, and let it be eaten by another animal.
Naming a cockroach, vegetable, or rodent after an ex-partner has been an annual tradition for the San Antonio zoo in Texas and The Bronx zoo in New York. With just minimal donation, people can have a cockroach from a farm and symbolically name it after their ex-partner. The donor and the ex-partner will receive a Valentine's e-card with the name and photo of the cockroach.
In El Paso zoo, people can also name cockroaches after their exes and have them fed to animals at the zoo, like skinks, iguanas, and meerkats in a bid to raise awareness and funds for the zoo.
In Pennsylvania, Lehigh Valley zoo and Farm offers crickets instead of cockroaches. With minimal donations, the zoo allows people to name a feeder cricket after a person and it will post videos showing the crickets being fed to animals.
The program of symbolically naming insects to exes is one of how zoos and farms ride on Valentine's day while spreading awareness and securing funds for their animals.