For Valentine’s Day, you can name a cockroach, rat or feral cat after your ex
Forget chocolates and roses, some jilted lovers are seeking catharsis instead
Forget chocolates and roses, this Valentine's Day some are seeking catharsis – by naming cockroaches, rats, and even feral cats after their exes.
Animal shelters and zoos worldwide are capitalising on the sentiment with fundraising campaigns offering darkly humorous revenge.
From naming a hissing cockroach after a former flame before it becomes another animal’s dinner, to christening a soon-to-be-neutered feral cat, the options are as varied as the reasons for heartbreak.
The Minnesota Zoo's “name a bug” campaign, targeting both friends and foes, has attracted international attention – but for Teri Scott of Poulsbo, Washington, the idea of naming a notoriously resilient cockroach after her ex-husband felt a little too close to home.
“I couldn’t bring myself to name a bug that’s so hard to get rid of after my former husband,” she explained, fearing it might be a bad omen.
Instead, Ms Scott found the perfect outlet for her post-breakup feelings through the “Love Hurts” fundraiser at the Bird Treatment and Learning Center in Anchorage, Alaska.
For a US$100 (£80) donation, she named a frozen rat after her ex, which will now be served to one of the centre's resident raptors.
Ms Scott said she considered the donation a gift to herself on her first anniversary as a single woman.
“You never enter a relationship thinking it's going to end, but when it does it's just hurtful,” she said.
“I just thought, I need to do something a little bit special for myself.”
She laughed out loud when she saw the "Love Hurts" posting. “It just seemed like a beautiful way to give back,” she said.
“We do this in good fun,” said Laura Atwood, the centre’s executive director. The money raised helps the facility pay salaries and care for birds – the nonprofit rehabilitated 580 of them in 2024.
Just over $18,000 had been raised by the time the campaign closed Wednesday. So many rats – more than 130 – were purchased for the campaign, the centre ran out of supplies until another batch of frozen rodents arrived.
“People are sometimes hurt by a relationship, and this just gives them a little cathartic way to maybe work something out,” Ms Atwood said, adding that they don’t publicise last names.
The videos of raptors like Ghost, a snowy owl that swallows the rat whole, or a peregrine falcon named Breland, which keeps one talon on the rodent and pecks away at it until it’s gone, will be emailed to donors.
There's also a cheaper option: People can pay $10 to name a mealworm after their ex before it’s fed to a crow or a magpie, and a video will be posted on social media.
The Memphis Zoo in Tennessee gives you two options — one for your lover and the other for a nemesis, each for $10, in its “Dating or Dumping” campaign.
If you’re happily coupled, you can get a digital card and a family-friendly video of a red panda eating a grape to share. But for those harbouring a grudge, along with your card, you’ll get a video of an elephant pooping signed with the words “Scent with Love.”
After Valentine's Day, the zoo will post a recap video showing the names of people memorialised in a video and will list the names that popped up the most for both daters and those earning a stinky shout-out.
“This is the most incredible thing,” said Caleigh Johnson, who is campaigning for her ex-boyfriend to be at the top of the smelly list by encouraging her friends to give to the fundraiser.
“I’m hoping that a few people will come through.”
Johnson doesn't talk to her ex anymore; instead, the video will be a treat for her friends to laugh at as they celebrate ‘Galentine’s Day’.