He raised tame animals before a bird (7)
I believe the answer is:
stephen
'he' is the definition.
'raised tame animals before a bird' is the wordplay.
'raised' says the letters should be written in reverse (going up in a down clue).
'tame animals' becomes 'pets' (domesticated or tamed animals).
'before' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a bird' becomes 'hen' (hen is a kind of bird).
'pets' in reverse letter order is 'step'.
'step'+'hen'='STEPHEN'
(Other definitions for stephen that I've seen before include "Boxing day is St -'s day" , "Male" , "Man" , "- Sondheim, composer" , "Chap" .)