Saving Grace Farm in Wake Forest has urgent need for dog adoptions, volunteers

WAKE FOREST, N.C. (WTVD) -- On any given day at the Saving Grace Farm in Wake Forest, there are dozens of dogs being cared for in hopes that one day they will be adopted.

Molly Goldston lives on the farm and is the founder of Saving Grace. Goldston has dedicated her life to rescuing dogs from rural kill shelters in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Goldston said she is seeing a soaring dog population following the pandemic lockdowns when spay and neuter clinics had to close or were limited in staff. She is issuing an urgent plea for adoption.

"This is an issue everywhere," Goldston said. "It's not just with us. We work in the most rural communities and the most underserved communities throughout North and South Carolina. So, they already struggle with access to spay-neuter care. And then over the last two years, as the staff was really limited or some of the clinics did close, they had no access to spay-neuter. So the litters that typically we see coming in at 8-9 weeks old are now coming in and they are a year or two old and may have a litter or two with each of them.

"So it's just really trickled down. All the shelters. You know, they usually call me every week, saying 'can you take a couple of dogs here and there' you know? Now, they're calling me every day, can you please come help us so that we can give an adoption opportunity to our animals here?" she added.

Goldston said the number of volunteers and foster families has also shrunk as more people return to work and travel picks up making it difficult to care for the large population of animals in need.

"We can't blame them," Goldston said about the loss of volunteers and fosters. "I mean, everybody's been home for two years. So yeah, they want to get out and about and go travel and we can't blame them whatsoever. But we do want to be able to provide the animals with the care they need at the same time."

Goldston said Saving Grace has a large variety of dogs for adoption from small breeds to larger dogs and puppies. She says the biggest need for adoption is always older, larger dogs.

Saving Grace also has an Amazon Wishlist of items to help care for its rescues.