Cat walking - the new craze?

Today I've seen two separate instances of people taking their cat for a walk. This seems just plain wrong.

Incident #1 took place right outside our flat where a group of people drove up and parked and then took their cat out of the car and played with it on the grass. The cat seemed reasonably content until it was required to return to the car.

Incident #2 saw an elderly lady walking her cat in a harness along Oriental Parade. The cat looked most put out (understandably) at being treated like a dog and was refusing to walk at all.

What will be the next trend here in Wellington? Stick-insect surfing? Guinea-pig triathlon? I'll let you know.