{"id":130323,"date":"2026-02-11T19:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T19:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/130323\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T19:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T19:03:07","slug":"you-can-name-a-cockroach-after-your-ex-and-watch-it-get-eaten-at-an-upstate-ny-aquarium-for-valentines-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/130323\/","title":{"rendered":"You can name a cockroach after your ex and watch it get eaten at an Upstate NY aquarium for Valentine\u2019s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want to celebrate Valentine\u2019s Day a little differently in Upstate New York? You can name a cockroach after an ex and watch it get eaten.<\/p>\n

The Via Aquarium in Schenectady, N.Y., is offering a limited number of slots for scorned lovers to name a cockroach after \u201ca special someone.\u201d The bug will then be fed to one of the aquarium\u2019s reptiles and filmed for your viewing pleasure.<\/p>\n

To participate in the Cockroach Feeding Experience, purchase a cockroach for $1 at viaaquarium.com<\/a> by Friday, Feb. 13, at 10 a.m. Senior reptile keeper Randy will do the feedings between 5-5:30 p.m. Friday, so participants can enjoy the videos on the Feb. 14 holiday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feeding will be recorded and shared so you can watch your special \u2018roach over and over,\u201d the aquarium said.<\/p>\n

According to the New York Post<\/a>, a number of other zoos, aquariums and animal habitats do similar \u201cName-A-Roach\u201d events for Valentine\u2019s Day to raise money for their programs. The Wildlife Conservation Society estimated more than 60,000 roaches have been named after former partners or even pop culture celebrities, raising roughly $1 million since the Bronx Zoo started the stunt in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cSkip the chocolates! Love has six legs this year,\u201d the Bronx Zoo joked on Facebook.<\/a><\/p>\n

Others with similar fundraisers include the San Antonio Zoo in Texas, the Birmingham Zoo in Alabama, and the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to celebrate Valentine\u2019s Day a little differently in Upstate New York? You can name a cockroach after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-130323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news","11":"tag-new-york-state","12":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}