This Zoo Will Name Cockroaches After Your Ex and Feed Them to Meerkats on Valentine’s Day

Revenge may be a dish that’s best served cold, but the El Paso Zoo thinks it might also be best served as a cockroach.

You read that right.

As reported by CBS News, this February 14th, you can send the zoo in El Paso, Texas your ex-boyfriend or girlfriend’s name and they’ll christen a cockroach in their honor. Then, in an event they’re calling “Quit Bugging Me,” they’ll feed all the roaches to the zoo’s meerkat population. So you can have the delightful experience of watching a bug named after an ex be eaten by a meerkat.

“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!”

If you’re feeling guilty, and maybe even a little petty or immature for gleefully watching a meerkat eat a cockroach that you’ve dubbed with an ex’s name, just remember you’re doing it for a good cause. There are many other services that send black roses or other unpleasant things to people who’ve wronged you; at least with this one you’re feeding a meerkat and making a donation to the zoo’s conservation efforts.

Show off your animal knowledge with our ‘Animals of the world’ shirt, only available in our store!

CBS reported that other zoos are doing similar events as well.

The Hemsley Conservation Center in Kent, England, will name a cockroach after your ex in exchange for a donation. You can also name a roach at the Bronx Zoo, which calls them “eternal” and “timeless” gifts.

Roaches aren’t the only things zoos can sell to feed to meerkats on Valentine’s Day, either. In this video from National Geographic, we learn that meerkats enjoy snacking on scorpions.

And here are some meerkats grubbing on grubs…you know, worms. I crack me up.

And here they are actually macking down on cockroaches. Feel free to name the roaches for your own purposes. On the house.

Finally, here’s a super dope video from BBC Earth on how meerkats are able to communicate and solve complex problems in order to eat.

Writer/comedian James Schlarmann is the founder of The Political Garbage Chute and his work has been featured on The Huffington Post. You can follow James on Facebook and Instagram, but not Twitter because he has a potty mouth.