<< Does anyone have any ideas of how to find a safe (not contaminated with bacteria) source of raw animal fat? >> In my opinion there is no such thing. We store the toxins that we cannot eliminate in our fat, all animals do this. Raw animal fat could be a very rich source of good things, but any animal will be carrying a lot of insecticides, and other toxins in them. The only safe fats are vegetarian, and those are very suspect too. Processing changes fats. Fats are not filtered as are protiens, and carbs in going into the body. they are absorbed directly into the system and dealt with later, so that any virus or carcinogenic content of the fat might elude the detection of the bodies defense system. This is, in my opinion, why vegetarians have a very low rate of cancer. We are not exposed to cancer causing toxins, or viruses brought into the system with fat. And there is not good vegetarian source either. The black bottled fats in the health food freezers are the best, they are cold processed, protected from heat and light. this helps, but we are all vulunerable to fat toxicity, and we all get it over a life time. and we all require fat to live. The only fats we need to live are linolenic and linoleic acid, these are both available in quantity in cold processed flax seed oil. The best book I have seen on the subject is by Udo Erasmus, FATS & OILS. I strongly recommend to anyone seriously studying fats to get his book, it is great. Jerry