There's a standard response to a particular PETA campaign: "Meat is murder. Delicious, delicious murder.".
It's a bit odd that someone would like to argue on the topic, but also either not have heard that or not recognize the ha-ha-only-serious nature of it.
I believe most people would be fine with eating the meat of murdered humans, too, if it was sold on grocery store shelves for a few years. The power of normalization is immense. It sounds like Eliezer was stuck on a pretty wrong path in making that argument. But it's also an undated anecdote and it may be that he never said such a thing.
It's a bit odd that someone would like to argue on the topic, but also either not have heard that or not recognize the ha-ha-only-serious nature of it.