A snowy owl named Ghost eats a frozen rat at the Bird Treatment and Learning Center on Feb. 6, 2025, in Anchorage, Alaska. The center is among animal shelters and zoos around the country providing cathartic avenues for the scorned to get a little revenge on Valentine's Day. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)2025-02-13T06:05:58Z ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) Feel like dissing instead of kissing your former lover this Valentines Day? Think your ex is more like a rat than a prince? Do you believe your former paramour should never procreate?Animal shelters and zoos around the country are encouraging little cathartic avenues for revenge this holiday and raising money for a cause with a slew of darkly funny fundraisers for those missed by Cupids arrow.Options include naming a feral cat after your old flame before its neutered or giving rodents or cockroaches your love bugs name before feeding them to bigger animals. The Minnesota Zoos campaign to name a bug after either a friend or a foe has attracted donors from across the world.Teri Scott of Poulsbo, Washington, said she was bombarded on social media with the anti-love campaigns, including naming a hissing cockroach after an ex. She said she couldnt bring herself to name a bug thats so hard to get rid of after her former husband, fearing that it could be an omen shed never shake him despite the court costs she paid.Then she ran across a promotion for the Love Hurts fundraiser at the Bird Treatment and Learning Center in Anchorage, Alaska. She ponied up $100 to name a frozen dead rat after her ex, and it will now be fed to a resident raptor at the facility. A hedgehog is shown May 17, 2024, eating a bug at the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley, Minnesota. (Minnesota Zoo via AP) A hedgehog is shown May 17, 2024, eating a bug at the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley, Minnesota. (Minnesota Zoo via AP) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Scott, who is celebrating her first anniversary as a newly single woman, views the donation as a gift to herself. You never enter a relationship thinking its going to end, but when it does its just hurtful, she said. I just thought, I need to do something a little bit special for myself.She laughed out loud when she saw the Love Hurts posting. It just seemed like a beautiful way to give back, she said.We do this in good fun, said Laura Atwood, the centers executive director. The money raised helps the facility pay salaries and care for birds the nonprofit rehabilitated 580 of them last year. Just over $18,000 had been raised by the time the campaign closed Wednesday. So many rats more than 130 were purchased for the campaign, the center ran out of supplies until another batch of frozen rodents arrived Wednesday, People are sometimes hurt by a relationship, and this just gives them a little cathartic way to maybe work something out, Atwood said, adding that they dont publicize last names.The videos of raptors like Ghost, a snowy owl that swallows the rat whole, or a peregrine falcon named Breland, which keeps one talon on the rodent and pecks away at it until its gone, will be emailed to donors. Breland, a peregrine falcon, eats a frozen rat at the Bird Treatment and Learning Center on Feb. 6, 2025, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen) Breland, a peregrine falcon, eats a frozen rat at the Bird Treatment and Learning Center on Feb. 6, 2025, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Theres also a cheaper option: People can pay $10 to name a mealworm after their ex before its fed to a crow or a magpie, and a video will be posted on social media. The Memphis Zoo in Tennessee gives you two options one for your lover and the other for a nemesis, each for $10, in its Dating or Dumping campaign. If youre happily coupled, you can get a digital card and a family-friendly video of a red panda eating a grape to share. But for those harboring a grudge, along with your card, youll get a video of an elephant pooping signed with the words Scent with Love. After Valentines Day, the zoo will post a recap video showing the names of people memorialized in a video and will list the names that popped up the most for both daters and those earning a stinky shout-out.This is the most incredible thing, said Caleigh Johnson, who is campaigning for her ex-boyfriend to be at the top of the smelly list by encouraging her friends to give to the fundraiser. Im hoping that a few people will come through.Johnson doesnt talk to her ex anymore; instead, the video will be a treat for her friends to laugh at as they celebrate Galentines Day. MARK THIESSEN Thiessen is an Associated Press all-formats reporter based in Anchorage, Alaska. He covers Alaska Native issues and other general assignments. twitter mailto