Animal protecting Republican family in Surrey town (7)

I believe the answer is:

dorking

'surrey town' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'animal protecting republican family' is the wordplay.
'animal' becomes 'dog' (type of animal).
'protecting' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters are held or protected).
'republican' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'family' becomes 'kin' (synonyms).
'r'+'kin'='rkin'
'dog' placed around 'rkin' is 'DORKING'.

'in' is the link.

(Another definition for dorking that I've seen is " Surrey town".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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