Gloria Murli of Rikers Island Cat Rescue estimates that there are 300-350 feral cats living on Rikers Island. According to The City, there were “:around 1,000” cats in the early 2000s. The New York Times reported on September 1, 2002, that there were then “[u]p to 18 cat colonies” and that the cat population “hit an estimated 250 to 400.” (I am not sure where The City got the 1,000 number.) The cat population was brought under control by a trap-neuter program in the early 2000s. [Sources: Haidee Chu for The City; Tara Bahrampour for The New York Times (2002)]