I'm trying to decide if it would be worthwhile to visit the DeWildt cheetah sanctuary near Johannesburg (Hartbeespoort dam). I was quite dissappointed with my cheetah visit at Spier, and if DeWildt is built along similar lines, I would rather skip it. Has anyone been to both?

I havent been to both, but did enjoy my visit to De Wildt back in April. I dont know what you expect to see other than caged cheetahs, although they do have other animals there. You can pay to have your photo taken with one of the cheetahs and pay to watch the cheetah's run.
But, I'm not sure exactly what is happening there, Ann Van Dyk the founder has resigned from the board and is going to set up another trust, I dont know if that means she's packing up her cheetahs as well or not. At the moment their webpage is closed while they update it.

Yes, I did notice the website was down.

I think you've pretty much answered my question though. I went to a cheetah encounter at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego and I thought it was ok I and enjoyed it enough to seek out similar experiences. I did not enjoy the experience at Spier.

My wife and I spent some time at the Hoedspruit Endangered Center a couple of years ago and we really enjoyed it. As a guest of Camp Jabulani we got to go behind the scenes...I do not know if that is offered to regular guests...here is a website.

www.wildlifecentre.co.za/

Three of us visited the Hoedspruit Endangered Center in Sep of 2007. For $15 each we got a vehicle ride around seeing about 10 cheetah in large fenced in areas and they tossed in chunks of meet for feeding. That was it, no behind the scenes, no cubs, no pictures with cheetahs. I can not recommend it. My trip report of that safari - http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...4&tid=35083850

regards - tom

Tom I agree with your story...I would not have been happy with that. And we where there a month after you in 2007.

On the other hand we got 1st class service from them, but I believe it was because the owner of the endangered center is also the owner of Camp Jabulani. The owner actually spent about 2 hours as our tour guide. We got to go in the cages with the cheetahs and the baby rhino...actually it was very hands on...we actually got to rub mud on the baby rhino and hand fed the cheetah.

So it is bonus to staying at Camp Jabulani.

Femi

I have been to Spies which gets its "supply" from De Wildt. At Spiers/De Wildt they call these Cheetahs "ambassadors".

Fact is - De Wildt breeds in captivity for captivity (zoos, private game reserves etc) and it's on your side to determine whether it's acceptable for you.

For me it's not.

SV

Looks like I'll be giving it a miss. Thanks for the responses.