This Valentine’s Day, the San Antonio zoo is letting visitors donate money for the honor of naming a cockroach or rodent after their ex, which will then be fed to one of the animals in their care.
Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, and stores are already setting out chocolates and cards in advance for customers who want to prepare early.
Another business is also gearing up for the holiday in a decidedly less romantic way, but their unorthodox method of celebrating is drawing eyeballs all over the internet and sparking laughter on social media.
Zoo lets patrons feed animals with roaches named after their exes
Every year, the San Antonio zoo in Texas holds a Valentine’s-themed fundraiser to keep itself afloat and support its animals.
Cheekily named ‘Cry me a Cockroach,’ the unique fundraiser lets patrons donate $5 or $15 USD to ‘purchase’ a cockroach, vegetable, or rat to feed to the zoo animals.
The big draw is that they get the honor of naming these doomed pests after an ex-partner who did them wrong, symbolically ‘feeding’ them to the animals to get back at them for breaking their heart.
The cockroaches and veggies cost $5, while naming a rat after your ex will run you $15. All you have to do is choose which option you’d prefer on the zoo’s website, make your donation, and fill out a form with the name of your “not-so-special someone.”
That’s not all; along with your donation, you’ll also receive a downloadable video of the critter getting gobbled up by one of the zoo animals to “share with friends or former flames.” Talk about brutal.
This campaign has gone viral on social media, leaving users equal parts amused and stunned at the zoo’s bold fundraising strategy. While some are joking about the “messy” fundraiser, others aren’t so happy about feeding animals with live prey named after a real person.
However, the San Antonio Zoo maintains that its fan-favorite fundraiser is “all in good fun” and “supports a great cause,” inviting supporters to turn their negative feelings about Valentine’s Day into “something wildly meaningful.”
The San Antonio Zoo isn’t the only one using unorthodox methods to feed its animals; in 2025, the Aalborg Zoo in Denmark went viral after advertising that visitors could donate their unwanted pets to help feed its big cats.
This is the latest zoo-related moment to go viral after Japanese zookeepers began dressing up as pandas for a special ticketed experience after China took back its national animal from all zoos in the country earlier this year.
