Every year, on Valentine's Day attractions come up with new and exciting ways for customers to express their affection to their loved ones.
However, a Russian zoo went with a different approach, allowing visitors to feed their old flames to the resident animals.
Name an Insect After Your Ex
Ekaterinburg Zoo, in the Ural region of Russia, announced the event in a post on social media on Saturday inviting visitors to name insects after their old flames and then feed them to the resident animals.
The unusual event is said to be the first of its kind at the park. On the sign-up page, which is now closed, customers were required to give their name and that of their ex-partner.
As reported by RT, the event seeks to empower lonely hearts to break free from the shackles of the negativity of their past love affairs. "It happens very often that a relationship with a partner ends and emotions such as anger, resentment and regret remain," the message on the application form read.
"Give yourself the right to emotion. You can do that! You can't hit people, but you can thank your ex for the experience and feed them to animals." The zoo also noted that this allow enable love-weary clients to"restore justice" and take revenge legally. "The best defense is an attack. Feel like a predator!" the website read.
Insects Then Fed to Meerkats, Fish
Tickets to participate in the feeding ritual were going for less than $5, which the zoo said was much cheaper than a therapy session with a psychologist. Participants were also promised a certificate and those who could not make it to the event in person could watch the resident meerkats and fish relish their respective exes in a video posted on the zoo's Instagram page.
For Valentine's Day, the Bronx Zoo in New York as well as the Houston Museum of Natural Science allowed visitors to name roaches after their past or present loved ones. The San Antonio Zoo's Cry Me a Cockroach fundraiser was geared toward naming the roaches after the ones who "really [made]2021 difficult," such as an "ex-partner, boss, or bestie."
The Texas zoo offered visitors a chance to name a number of living things after their former partners; a leafy green for $5, a roach for $10 and a rodent for $25. For an additional fee, they could also watch a video of their "ex" being fed to an animal.
