Meerkats and cockroaches cheer up jilted lovers at Messingham Zoo

A zoo is marking Valentine’s Day by helping jilted lovers get back at their exes – by naming cockroaches after them and then feeding them to meerkats.

Messingham Zoo, near Scunthorpe, is charging people a small fee for a video of a critter named after a former partner being fed to a meerkat.

And the family-run animal park has been crawling with requests.

Owner Alex Gouldthorp said: “It’s gory, but the customers absolutely love it.”

She said the business had received specific requests including for the “fattest cockroach” and to “make sure it gets really chewed”.

The event is proving so popular that some customers are ordering several videos.

“Some of the cockroaches can get their heads chewed off,” she said.

“It’s gory, but the customers absolutely love it. The more gory, the better.

“They’re nearly all funny… This isn’t a serious thing – we are trying to keep it light-hearted.”

A similar event started as a fundraiser for a zoo in Texas in 2020. By 2023, the zoo in San Antonio was being sent details of exes’ names from all 50 US states and more than 30 countries.

Messingham Zoo has been taking part in the stunt for a few years.

Ms Gouldthorp said it joined in because Valentine’s Day is “not always a happy, red roses thing for everybody, so it’s just a bit of a laugh”.