[shoes_for_thee]

/shrug. i can think of any number of totally hypothetical reasons why demonstrating incompetence would be a strategic or tactical win.

- now your enemy is complacent, secure in the knowledge that you are super super dumb

- now your enemy is on the lookout for dog and cat listening devices rather than the 5th generation bird listening devices

- now your enemy is indeed paranoid about any stupid animal roaming about and has to meet in enclosed spaces

- you, knowing that experimenting on cute cats is unethical, seek to terminate the practice by devising an experiment that fails so embarrassingly as to never be tried again

etc

[rsynnott]

This was only declassified in 2001, though; the state of the art in bugging cats has presumably improved significantly, so it's no longer relevant.