Terrified Cat at Ballard Sunday Market

Stopped by the Ballard Sunday market today and witnessed a Busker dragging his (?) cat around on a harness. Put mildly, the cat was terrified. For the 5 minutes where I had the misfortune of eating nearby, the guy spent most of the time dragging the poor animal out from under whatever shelter the cat crawled into most recently, usually the closest table or sandwich board. He would even force the cat up on his shoulder. It cried up on the shoulder. It cried when he tried to shove it into the cat backpack. It cried when it was on the ground and couldn’t make it underneath a table because it ran out of leash. Cats make a lot of noises but that was not a happy noise. The cherry on top is how he would encourage tippers to show the bills into the cat’s collar like some kind of weird cat stripper.

Clearly the thought process was “people like cats –> more tips” but this felt pretty close to animal abuse. There are massive dogs and hundreds of people stepping everywhere. Is this guy a regular? Can this behavior be discouraged? Are there instances of this cat not miserable in this situation? For such a progressive pet-friendly city, people seemed awfully chill with what was unfolding in front of them.