NAME COCKROACH AFTER YOUR EX?

The heartbroken gathered on Valentine’s Day weekend to watch a host of animals at the El Paso Zoo in Texas devour cockroaches — all in the name of (soured) love.

In one of many livestreams posted to Facebook, Sarah Borrego films a zookeeper holding a “very specific roach” to the mouth of Fido, a rhinoceros iguana.

“We are going to name him Aaron,” Borrego, the zoo’s events co-ordinator, says in the livestream, pushing Aaron the cockroach toward the iguana’s face.

“Fido, does Aaron look appetizing to you? No, Aaron’s not that great,” she says. “I think Fido knows what Aaron did. Fido, how does it taste? Bitter? Cold? Yeah, that sounds like Aaron.”

Another video shows meerkats. As a zookeeper tosses each roach out of a bucket, another says the name of someone’s ex: “Eddie.” Splat. “Jason.” Splat. “Larry.” Splat. “Shannon.” Splat.

After a successful campaign last year, Borrego organized the zoo’s second Quit Bugging Me campaign, which sees former lovers name a cockroach after an ex. Later, via livestreams, they can watch animals feast on their symbolic heartbreaker. And then they can leave a donation.

The Valentine’s holiday has “become so cliché, so commercial,” Borrego told the National Post, explaining that “it’s just a chore to do Valentine’s Day.

“What’s the point? There’s no love. So last year I was like, ‘Let’s do something gross … something fun. We’re at the zoo!’ ”

That’s when the idea of feeding cockroaches named after people’s exes came to life.

Last year, the zoo received 7,000 names and US$3,000 in donations. This year, the zoo got more than 16,000 names and more than US$12,000 in donations. Submissions came from all over the world, including Canada, Australia, the U.K. and the Czech Republic.

To entice donors, the campaign even said that for every US$1,000 raised, the zoo director would eat a roach; he ate 12, but not at one sitting.

It was a group effort among all the animals to eat the 16,000 roaches, with handlers feeding them over three days.

Borrego couldn’t pinpoint which name was submitted the most, but “there were definitely more male names” than female.

And even a friend participated.

Borrego said her pal’s ex, Aaron — yes, the “Aaron” fed to Fido — was caught out just days before.

“My friend … went to get coffee in the morning and in the drive-thru was her boyfriend with another woman,” Borrego told the Post. Thankfully, there was a plan.

“Don’t worry,” Borrego told her friend. “I’ll call him out on air and name a cockroach after him.”