Just for the record, I agree that LW1's comment was ill-advised. But the appropriate response was "Wow, what a really weird thing to say" followed by a private resolution to not discuss the cats with that cat-hating jerk. What Coworker did was way out of bounds - and it would have been even if LW1 had said that thing about kids instead of cats!

But here's LW2 defending it! FFS. I just can't get over it.