Every Friday my son and I shop at the weekly market.
The other day the six-year-old stopped in front of the fishmonger's window.
On a bed of ice cubes lay fat fish with bluish scales, flat fish with empty bulging eyes and individual components of different shapes from what were once very large fish.
The son pointed to the motionless shrimp and asked: "Why do people do that?"
Photo: Lina Moreno / DER SPIEGEL
Anna Clauß
, 39, is the mother of a five-year-old son.
She works full-time and knows how to raise children to be happy despite being absent and constantly short of time.
Or at least successfully persuade it.
To buy time, I asked back what exactly he meant.
"Why do people kill animals?" He specified.
When it comes to difficult questions, sometimes it is best to simply answer the truth.
So I said, dead animals were very tasty to a lot of people.
"Fish fingers are one of your favorite meals too," I continued.
Our child has been a vegetarian ever since.
Every salami on the pizza, every yellow sausage on the pretzel roll, every crumb of minced meat in the Bolognese sauce is viewed critically by the child and asks: "Is there any dead animal in there?" I've lost my appetite.
Anyone who realizes before every meal that they eat slaughtered and repeatedly dismembered creatures inevitably turns into a vegetarian.
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