A stage in the raising of tame animals (4)
I believe the answer is:
step
'a stage' is the definition.
(as in a step or stage of a process)
'the raising of tame animals' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'sep' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for step that I've seen before include "Rung, dance movement" , "Place foot on as with a pest" , "Set foot down on pest" , "Dance move" , "Tread - stage" .)