{"id":132607,"date":"2026-02-13T16:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T16:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/132607\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T16:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T16:35:07","slug":"full-of-spite-this-valentines-day-heres-how-to-celebrate-nbc-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/132607\/","title":{"rendered":"Full of spite this Valentine\u2019s Day? Here\u2019s how to celebrate. \u2013 NBC New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zoos across the country are expanding their anti-Valentine’s Day offerings with gifts that are bigger, grosser, and more aggressive than ever.<\/p>\n

In 2011, the Bronx Zoo launched its now-famous “Name-a-Roach” campaign,<\/a> allowing donors to name a Madagascar hissing cockroach after someone special… or not so special. The program was started just in time for Valentine’s Day, coining the slogan “because roaches are forever.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since then, the idea of naming a less-than-cuddly animal after someone has taken off, with zoos across the country putting their own spin on the spiteful gift.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The San Antonio Zoo’s “Cry Me a Cockroach”<\/a> fundraiser allows participants to choose their form of vengeance, ranging from cockroaches to vegetables to rats.<\/p>\n

Was your ex a real piece of work? The Maryland Zoo will let you name a pile of animal dung<\/a> after them.<\/p>\n

Maritime Aquarium in Connecticut hosts a “Love Bites” fundraiser,<\/a> allowing you to symbolically name a fish to be fed to another animal, “o-fish-ally” saying goodbye to that ex.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Columbus Zoo in Ohio<\/a> offers one of the most gruesome anti-Valentine’s gifts of all. Its campaign allows you to name a worm and then watch it get eaten by a sloth bear.<\/p>\n

Lily L. from New York City has participated in the Bronx Zoo’s “Name-a-Roach” program, saying she used it as a gift for friends who have birthdays close to Valentine’s Day. \u201cI named roaches after their terrible exes as a gag gift,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Don’t have an ex you hate enough to watch a worm named after them get eaten alive? That’s okay. These fundraisers don’t discriminate. Shannon Lee from Morrow County, Ohio, named the worm after something she despised — “Winter.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you’re dreading Valentine’s Day, these zoos might be offering the perfect (somewhat sane) outlet. All proceeds go directly toward wildlife conservation efforts, meaning you can indulge your petty side while supporting a good cause, plus it’s tax-deductible. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tValentine\u2019s Day likely began as a feast day for a Christian martyr executed by the Roman emperor, according to History.com.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zoos across the country are expanding their anti-Valentine’s Day offerings with gifts that are bigger, grosser, and more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56,47697],"class_list":{"0":"post-132607","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-valentines-day"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132607","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=132607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}