FOUR MONTH OLD Taylor, the lurcher puppy, was settling in with his adoptive family this week after a speedy recovery from a brutal attack in which his throat was slashed.

Last month, the puppy was found on the outskirts of a housing estate on Portlaoise, Co Laois, covered in blood with multiple stab and slash wounds to his neck.

He was rescued by a local charity, Cara Rescue Dogs, and taken to a local veterinary surgery where staff worked for two hours to piece his neck back together.

Miraculously, Taylor made a rapid recovery and has now found a new home and family in Co Wicklow. Lorraine McEvoy, manager of Cara Rescue Dogs has been fostering the pup for the last four weeks and told TheJournal.ie that she is “amazed” by how well he has come through his trauma.

“He has no issues at all since the incident,” she said. “When we found him first he was obviously in shock but whenever we’ve been touching his neck where the wound is he’s fine with it, no crying or anything, he’s so good natured.”

Rehoming

McEvoy said she was careful when rehoming the lurcher puppy as there was concern that certain people may only want to take him because of the national media coverage.

“We had hundreds of offers from people to take him because they saw him in news stories and on TV as well,” she said. “With Taylor, lots of people were feeling sorry for him but a lot of it is just novelty because he’s a high profile dog and you have to ask, when all the hype dies down, will they still want him?”

Before any media reports came out, a woman who had taken another dog from Cara Rescue contacted McEvoy offering the pup a home.

“Jennifer was the first person to ever express interest in him, before the story took off and she’s a big animal lover and has such a lovely family so it was a no brainer to be honest,” she said.

The puppy has now been in his new home the Scanlan family in Wicklow, their two other dogs and one cat for a full week and has been called Isa, after Leinster player Isa Nacewa.

“We adore him”

Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Jennifer Scanlon said the pup has “touched so many hearts” and she was glad he was settling in so well. “We adore him, he’s an amazing puppy,” she said.

Though this story has a happy ending, Lorraine McEvoy said she feels that the government is failing animals with its leniency on animal welfare matters.

“The laws are there but nobody is enforcing them,” she said. “More is being done about dog licences, to collect money. You can have a dog for over 40 hours and decide not to feed it or keep it tied up on a leash forever but if you don’t pay your dog licence you’re in trouble.”

“The maximum penalty, which isn’t enough to begin with, is never handed down,” she added. “The amount of horrific cases I’ve heard of, just like Taylors and literally nothing has ever been done.”

She called on the government to look at the legislation again to address the problems and stop further cruelty against animals.