Crossword Genius

The rest minced meats outside for the pets (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

hamsters

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'the pets' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both animals as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?

'the rest minced meats outside' is the wordplay.
'minced' is an anagram indicator.
'meats' becomes 'hams' (ham is a kind of meat).
'outside' indicates putting letters inside (some letters go outside others).
'rest' with letters rearranged gives 'ster'.
'ster' going inside 'hams' is 'HAMSTERS'.

'for' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for hamsters that I've seen before include "Small pet rodents with cheek-pouches" , "Rodents with large cheek-pouches" , "Small rodents with cheek-pouches, often pets" , "Mouse-like rodents with cheek-pouches" , "He's smart, like rodent pets" .)

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.
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