Saving Rikers Island’s Forgotten Cats: Barry Hyman on Rescue, Compassion, and Second Chances

Saving Rikers Island’s Forgotten Cats: Barry Hyman on Rescue, Compassion, and Second Chances Uncle Dave welcomes longtime friend Barry Hyman, senior staff optometrist at Rikers Island, Knights of Pythias brother, and dedicated volunteer with the Rikers Island Cat Rescue, to discuss the extraordinary effort to protect and humanely manage the island’s feral-cat population. Barry shares how discovering kittens outside one of the jail facilities in 2019 led him to connect with retired correction captain Gloria Morelli and become certified in TNR—trap, neuter, and return. Since then, a small team of volunteers has helped reduce the cat population from more than 500 to approximately 250–300 by organizing mass-trapping events, coordinating veterinary care, maintaining feeding stations, providing fresh water, and building winter shelters across Rikers Island’s roughly 465 acres. The conversation explores how quickly an unaltered pair of cats can create an enormous colony, why straw rather than blankets should be used in outdoor shelters, and how abandoned domestic cats can become part of the island’s population. Barry also explains how damaged or donated pet products from organizations and retailers help the rescue obtain food and supplies at reduced costs—but fundraising, transportation, medical care, and daily maintenance remain constant challenges. Barry also shares exciting progress toward establishing a centralized cat sanctuary on Rikers Island. The proposed sanctuary would bring the cats into one protected location, simplify their daily care, make newly abandoned cats easier to identify, and potentially create a program where eligible detainees learn animal care, responsibility, empathy, and practical trapping skills. Similar correctional animal programs have shown that caring for animals can reduce violence and help participants rediscover compassion, purpose, and connection. This episode is a powerful reminder that meaningful change often begins with one person noticing a problem, choosing to help, and continuing to show up—even when the work is difficult, unglamorous, and largely unseen. To support Barry and the Rikers Island Cat Rescue: https://ricr.org/ Visit the website to donate, purchase a T-shirt, access the Amazon wish list, or learn more about the rescue’s work. Search for Rikers Island Cat Rescue on Facebook and Instagram. To support us, check out: https://davidchametzky.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@davidchametzkyNOW https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peace-love-and-bring-a-bat/id1552738547