Breading cats?

When I first saw this term, I thought it was a typo. Sadly, I was mistaken.

I'm often slow to spot new social trends, since I get much of my news through the comics. But the second panel of this morning's "Wizard of Id" filled a gap in my education:

I thought no way can this be on the level and decided to do a little fact checking. Boy, was I wrong:

 

Here's how you know that something's gotten trendy without your having noticed:

I'm not saying cats don't deserve this kind of treatment. But what puzzles me is why they don't run under the bed and just eat their way out of the situation. Tiny brains is what I'm thinking.