January 2026

Dear Readers,

we at Animal Police, we at Finca Noah 2.0, and all our beloved animal charges hope you've come into the new year healthy and had a wonderful start to 2026.

I remember it as if it were yesterday when I sat at Cologne airport on December 31st, 2025 — New Year's Eve — and wrote you the newsletter with December's events.

Today I'm writing these lines again from Finca Noah 2.0, accompanied by a little whirlwind. Marlon, a small tomcat who's with us for the holidays. A real treasure who recently had to have eye surgery where one eye was removed. Marlon tested positive for FIV and FeLV, so we're being careful with how he lives alongside our other cats. The smallest kittens aren't fully vaccinated yet, and of course we want to avoid any risk of infection.

I'm sitting with him in the bedroom, watching out of the corner of my eye as he plays with Mrs. Meier's dog bed. I think I don't need to explain to anyone who Mrs. Meier is? The little Yorkshire terrier lady who responds to her name like no other.

A Shocking Moment with Great Loss

Our rabbits, doves, budgies, lovebirds, and cockatiels shared a large aviary on the old Finca. From time to time, a chick family would join them, finding protection from the dangers of raptors and rats.

This aviary doesn't exist in this form on Finca 2.0 yet, but we're working on it at full speed. With painstaking effort, we've built two temporary aviaries to give these animals some freedom and to avoid the cage housing from which we'd partially freed them — until the large 100 square meter aviary is finished and, most importantly, safely built.

On the night of January 9th to the 10th, it suddenly turned stormy. I noticed the wind late in the evening, but unfortunately didn't realize it would get much worse during the night. On Saturday morning as it was slowly getting light, while I was searching for Leo the tomcat who needed to take his medication after a dental operation, I looked outside toward where the temporary aviary stands and experienced a moment of shock. The aviary had been blown away by the strong wind. Apparently the wind caught the closed, sheltered part of the aviary and lifted it. About three meters away it came to rest, but unfortunately in such a way that a grid and the rabbit house were destroyed. The aviary was no longer secure. The birds, doves, and rabbits could escape from their supposedly safe place, and unfortunately other animals that pose a danger to them could get in. We don't blame our free-roaming and farm-dwelling cats for seizing the opportunity to enter the aviary. My son Juan and I stood stunned and shocked in the middle of the destroyed aviary where several lovebirds and doves had already been injured and, sadly, killed by the cats. It took a brief moment to realize what had happened and that we needed to act to protect all the surviving animals. We secured the aviary as quickly as possible so that no one could get in or out anymore.

My son took care of the surviving birds while I removed the animals that had already died. It looked like a massacre. Feathers and blood everywhere, no matter where you looked. Then we had to search for the rabbits. We quickly found one. He hopped happily around the Finca. The second one was nowhere to be found even after hours of searching.

Nadja walked around the property for hours with the German Shepherd Hutch on a leash searching for the missing rabbit. We didn't know if it had been injured, so it was important to us to find it as quickly as possible. And if anyone would find it, it would be Hutch, who lies in front of the aviary with such calm and fascination, watching what's happening inside like he's at the cinema!

I always say he's sitting in the movies!

While searching and walking the grounds, I discovered more storm damage with alarm. A fence had been broken. At any moment, a dog could have entered the property, as the people walking in our neighborhood don't take the leash requirement very seriously. We have 10 dogs running free here, so you can imagine what happens if a strange dog gets onto the property.

At one of the dog kennels, a roof panel had blown away. I want to emphasize that one of these panels weighs about 40 kilograms and was bolted down. We were lucky. The panel that flew away didn't injure any animal, and fortunately none got into the open kennel. Hens and cats are not friends to the female dog Avalon.

Farah was away working in Switzerland that weekend. Of course, I called her immediately to inform her what had happened. Surprisingly calmly, she tried to calm us down. Her strength is organizing things. Farah immediately mobilized Nadja and Anna to help us clean up the storm damage and feed the animals. Two strong male hands immediately started repairing the fence.

This disaster, the loss of these innocent little souls, was published in the media. We have many animal lovers who support us, our work, and especially our animals. These are exactly the people we want to reach through the media and keep updated on what's happening with our charges and how they're doing.

But there are also people who have nothing to do with animals, with animal welfare, or even with themselves. The so-called haters responded to the report and questioned everything. Maliciously, they claim there was no storm, no wind. They question the approach to animal welfare when so many innocent souls are lost due to severe weather.

It's absolutely outrageous (and that's really putting it mildly) what these people allow themselves to do. The fact that there are such evil and hateful people who are completely unaware of the damage they cause with such claims and accusations makes me extremely angry.

I stood with my son in a destroyed aviary at 7:30 AM, Juan still in his pajamas, without socks, without shoes. Juan stood there crying, having found his beloved doves — which he raised on the bottle — and the lovebirds he watched hatch from eggs, lying on the ground drenched in blood, some without their heads. Hand-tame doves were still fluttering around nervously in shock. He was devastated. He felt helpless, but still managed to secure the surviving birds. Understandably, in that moment he felt a wave of hatred toward the cats. Plus, he was terrified for the rabbits, which he's grown very attached to. Juan was in contact all day with dear Sonja from Switzerland, who knows rabbits very well, to get advice on how to find the missing rabbit.

It's easy to sit at home on the couch with a fake profile and a made-up name writing stupid comments. These people have no respect for what we animal welfare advocates do day in and day out. I only know one thing — my 15-year-old son is superior to all these people. I've taught him in his upbringing to treat animals, no matter which ones, with love and dignity. My son, without saying anything to me, buried all the deceased animals and gave them their final honor, letting them rest in peace with a final farewell.

I don't know what went wrong in some people's upbringing, but you should know one thing.

Karma says hello!

The people who start such a hate campaign on the internet are worse than the strongest storm on Mallorca. I've experienced several storms on Mallorca. We're powerless against nature, but against the "haters" we can do something, I promise!!!

We've secured the temporary aviary, but the terrible experience still sits so deep in me that with every wind that now blows across the island during winter, I'm in a state of alert. On every stormy night I walk around the Finca hourly with a flashlight, checking that everything is alright, just to ease my conscience that all the animals are okay.

We hope we can now finish building the aviary as quickly as possible so the animals can move out of the temporary setup.

Keep your fingers crossed that the stormy times on Mallorca end soon and temperatures rise again.

Thank you so much for reading and sticking with me to the end. It's gotten a bit longer this time.

Greetings from Finca Noah 2.0

Nadine De Tomi