I stayed here recently, it seemed like an amazing idea - Elephants delivering breakfast right to your doorstep... a perfect trip for an animal lover like myself. The reasons I was charitable enough to give this place one star: *The fact that some of these animals were rescued from "worse" futures (euthenasia, animal shelters) and routinely given vitamins and supplements to help their health; *Our view of the elephants from our bungalow was super cool; *the bungalow itself was adorable; *the ostrich performed a mating ritual in front of me and my sister, repeating with encores when encouraged by applause; *the abundance of stars in the sky - something I don't see as a city girl; *the fact that the elephants had more than 10 square feet to walk around in, which leads me to... The reason I only give this place one star: You guys are lucky you got one. The treatment of animals there is abysmal. We read the brochure, watched your promo video and heard your stories behind this huge preserve - a preserve that supposedly spreads 50 acres. During the tour, a group of us was led around to various cages, each housing a trained animal retired from various stints in movies, commercials, calender shoots, etc. Each animal was given about 20 square feet to live in - barely enough room, in some cases, to complete an entire stride, much less walk fast or run. The cages the animals are kept in have no greenery, no dirt, just concrete floors (easily to hose down, I presume). I had a difficult time believing the lions, jaguar, alligator and other creatures actually lived in these tiny cages - so I asked "where do they get their exercise?" I recieved a vague response: "oh we take them out regularly". Take them out, regularly? How thoughtful of you. These animals have a right to clean, attractive spaces that allow them to move freely and enjoy their lives. At least the elephants got a nice big acre. But what about the rest of these gorgeous creatures? You should be ashamed of yourselves. Spend some money and provide these poor, lovely animals a real home. read more

I have to agree with the other reviews. This place kinda depressed me a little. I LOVE animals and being a Leo, Lions are my all time favorite. First of all thank god the tour was only $10 a person because if my date had paid more I would have felt horrible. I entered this place with excitement and couldn't wait to see this "rescued" animals in a "happy" environment. Now maybe some of the animals are better off where they are, but man the cats seemed so depressed. First off the tour was super speedy, a ot of the animals seemed sedated or just plain sad. The lion didnt even move when we walked over. The king of the jungle just layed there, that was the ONE animal i was stoked on seeing and I couldn't even get a good pic of it. UGH. The lionesses were beautiful but were in this tiny cage. Same with the other cats, the jaguar, cougar, lynx, tigers, leopard, all them...TINY cages. They were pacing, which means they were nervous or just plain fricken antsy. How the hell could cat that size be kept cooped up in a cage like that most of their days?!! The elephants, ostridge (however you spell it) and zebras had TONS of room. So these guys I didn't feel bad for. The bungalows looked pretty cute and I had originally planned on goin back to maybe stay over night. But honestly I left feeling so down I'm not sure I'd want to go back. They take these animals out on a fricken leash to get their exercise...are you kidding me? Now maybe I didn't get the fulls story..maybe these huge cats have a larger area they get to go play in and run and be somewhat the wild cats that they are. I hope to god I am not fully informed and their only time out of those cages are NOT walking on a damn leash. They seemed like they loved the people that worked there but were dying for attention. They wanted to be petted and i would have loved to have touched them...but the cost for a more advanced tour where you get to touch the animals was fricken $900!!! Um...$150 maybe even $200..ok but $900 ....good lord. Everyone here seemed really nice so it's hard to diss this place, but seriously as a cat lover...it didn't leave me with a good feeling. =( Even the zoo's have larger cages than this place. Not very nice. =( I mean it was nice to get out and do something different but because it made me sad I can't give it more than 2 stars. And the second star is only for good measure...because maybe just maybe there is something I'm not getting about this place. The animals didn't look unhealthy so maybe they are ok after all. read more

I've stayed at this facility several times and have recommended it to many other people who have done the same. All feel as I do, that it is a true gem amongst privately owned animal facilities and B&B's in the country. One walks away from this facility having learned so much more about animals and their individual personalities then they will from any zoo or sanctuary. The animals at Vision Quest Ranch relate to all that they are happy, healthy, SAFE and completely trusting of their caretakers. They respond to their trainers with happiness, not fear. They are true ambassadors to their species thanks to their training and ability to interact with others. I could not disagree more with the opinion posted 6/11/07 by Robin G. of San Francisco, Ca. Coincidentally; I returned to the facility after she posted those remarks and asked the owner of the facility to respond to her comments. He walked me back and measured the smallest of the cat enclosures at the facility which was two hundred (200) square ft. Robin, NOT 20! Neither of us could find where anyone suggests the facility is a "huge preserve" either. I took the opportunity to engage in one of their full contact tours and although it wasn't inexpensive, it was worth every penny for I saw first hand how their animals really do spend quality time out of their enclosures. No, their tigers are not in natural style enclosures (like S.F. Zoo) but they are happy, healthy and SAFE in their 600 square ft. homes. Falsely suggesting they don't put enough money back into their animals was reckless and false! Compared to the $300,000+ salary of the S.F. Zoo director, Mr. Sammut doesn't even take a pay check for his efforts! Every dime goes right back to the animals and he is currently working to find funding to rebuild the facility with even larger more natural style enclosures. You would have known all of this Robin had you simply did what I did, ASK. It is you Robin, who should be ashamed of yourself for attacking a facility you knew so little about and in doing so, hurting the animals who are housed there. I can not recommend the facility enough to any and all but please take the time to learn all there is to learn there - there is so much. Couple this with the incredible and unique comforts of the B&B and you can save yourselves the thousands of dollars a trip to Africa might cost you. read more

This place gets NO STARS! Lured by a website that was disingenuous and false, I beleived I was going to visit a humane animal facility that "resuced" animals from "less than perfect circumstances" and gave them a "sancuary" to live out their lives. I was aware that some of them were trained, working animals raised in captivity, but the website showed only photos of their "loving care" and generous, loving interaction with trainers and the owners of the ranch. I know that animals raised by humans can aquired a dog like bond and love for their trainers. Deprived of their natural lives, all these animals have is the human like bond, complete with emotional needs for love and attention and affection like any dog or cat. The website showed no photos of the actual housing of the animals, but to read about their "happy family", you expect to arrive to find humane, large habitat simulated areas for the animals to roam and run and play in water in. Instead, this is nothing but a self-serving, exploiting, pious sounding "zoo", this is WORSE than a zoo. I have been to zoos that had much larger, more humane housing facilities, that provided water holes and dirt, grass and trees for the animals to live in-and are also still perfectly SAFE for the animal and human alike. This is a DISGRACE, with cold, hard, SMALL, cages with concrete slab floors (easy to keep clean), and animals who naturally have a 500+ square mile range in the wild-like bears and large cats-forced to live in tiny 16x10 cages-of which the "guide" pointed out, were "three times regulation" size, big MF deal, still not AT ALL humane. No dirt, no trees, no plants, no water holes, nothing. And this place has been around for 20+ years. The guide was new and perhaps answered my questions TOO honestly, but I really thought these cages must be just for while the two tours that come through daily were there, and there must be runs and larger expanses for the animals on a regular basis. NO. This is IT. This 16' cage with it's concrete floor is all this animal knows, has known or will probably EVER know, except when it was a baby and treated to a human bonding experience, or when it was a "working" animal and so was taken out regularly for training purposes and to do film, commercial, music video, photo ro events work-when it travel in an even smaller cage by truck, plane, etc. to wherever it's extremely lucrative contract took it. When questioned the guide told me that the work of TWO of the animals paid for the whole entire ranch, EVERYTHING! One of the lions and a tiger were so luctrative, brought in so much money for the owner that he could start this huge facility, the focus of which is to MAKE MORE MONEY. Make no mistake, this is a FOR PROFIT operation and has been EXTREMELY LUCRATIVE, yet as the guide put it, they "cannot afford" the bigger, habitat type areas for these animals that you see at better zoos. Then how can the owners continue to "afford" adopting more such high cost exotic cats such as the two new tigers brought in to replace the "retired" tigers? How can they afford to keep BUYING, yes-don't be fooled that these animals were "recused", many were BOUGHT from DEALERS and BREEDERS, the guide admitted-how can they afford this, but they cannot afford more humane cages? Isn't that considered "animal collecting" and soesn't the ASPCA stop it? Just because what they are doing is legal, doesn't make it right. Next I asked the tour guide about the animals exercise and socialization, because I volunteed at a wildlife center as a child and ALL of the animals were taken to a large exercise area twice a week and let roam free to run and stretch, and again, the guide was naively honest and admitted that most of the animals weren't even out of their cages more than once or twice a month and even then it is only to show them off to visiting dignitaries or to the Bed and Breakfast guests or high rollers that pay for the day. They are trained sometimes, I suppose, but she said they are not out of their cages more that a couple of times a month. I asked about exercise, no. The smaller animals are taken nightly to parade in front of hotel guests and down to even smaller cages for the night maybe 500 yards and then back on display in the morning. So, the bears, the lions, the tigers, etc. are just 24/7-except when "working" or "training" in their cage. She informed me that some of the animals "don't want to come out of their cages!" As if that means they are "happy" there, all that tells me is that the humans have suceeded in thoroughly breaking their spirit. Please dont' be fooled by Wild Things Inc or Vision Quest Ranch, give your money to the ASPCA, who humanely rescues wildlife for the sole purose of returning them to their natural habitat ASAP. read more

My husband and i were given a stay at the Bed and Breakfast as an anniverary present. It was an amazing experience. Having knowledge of animals I was upset with the uninformed guests on the guided tour. They gave the tour guide a hard time about the big cats accomidations. They were quite adequate, but the guest complained they were not big enough. The guest even complained that they would not get enough exercise. The guide waas patient and tried to explain that cats do not want to move around and can sleep up to 20 hours per day. Also explained they are taken out for walks on a leash. I was shocked that the guest that complained about exercise acted like leash was a dirty word. I wish that people would have knowledge before they harass others trying to do their job. Other than that guest, it was a great experience. read more