Dead getting fed to dogs? Replies here (3,7)

'dead' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.

'fed to dogs? replies here' is the wordplay.
'fed to' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'dogs?' becomes 'boxers' (boxer is a kind of dog).
'replies here' becomes 'numb' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'boxers' enclosing 'numb' is 'BOX NUMBERS'.

'getting' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?