The San Antonio Zoo hosts a Valentine’s Day fundraiser called “Cry Me a Cockroach,” where donors can buy a cockroach for $5 and name it after their ex before watching it be fed to a larger animal. The event raised over $35,000 USD in 2021, with the option to nominate a pre-frozen mouse or offer veggies to a herbivore. Videos of the event were posted on social media, and the zoo plans to hold the event again in 2022. Cockroaches can survive for months without food and water and can travel up to three miles in an hour.
Revenge might be a dish best served cold, but the San Antonio Zoo has a far more twisted suggestion. Every year for Valentine’s Day, the zoo invites scorned lovers to buy a cockroach for $5, name it after the person who broke their heart, then watch it being fed to a larger animal. The “Cry Me a Cockroach” event is a fundraiser and raised more than $35,000 USD in 2021, which will go to upgrade the zoo’s jaguar habitat.
Some of the money raised came from $25 donations for which, instead of a cockroach, one could nominate a pre-frozen mouse and see it fed to a reptile. New for 2021 was a “vegetarian” option, which involved offering an assortment of veggies to a herbivore, perfect for naming pesky housemates. While donors are welcome to see for themselves, the zoo has also posted videos of the Valentine’s Day food frenzy on social media for all to see. As an added bonus, donors received a certificate marking their donation, which could proudly hang on a wall, ideally somewhere their ex could see it.
For those who missed out this year, there’s no need to despair: The San Antonio Zoo plans to hold the event in 2022.
As for cockroaches:
A cockroach can go months without food, a month without water, and even a week without a head.
The chemical cues left in their tracks allow the cockroaches to follow each other to food and develop a swarm.
Anyone who has tried to step on a cockroach knows that they are quick; in fact, they can travel three miles (5 km) in an hour.
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