The Incredible Dr. Pol
Saving Lives and Taking Names
by Pamela Price
photos by National Geographic Channels
Sometimes you meet people who you will remember forever. Dr.
Jan Pol is one of those people. Yes, we share a great love
for animals, but Dr. Pol is very special. He has dedicated
his life to saving the lives of four-legged creatures, big
or small. Dogs, cats, cows, horses, turkeys, chickens, pigs,
geese, sheep, rabbits, you name it, he saves it. And now he
does it all for the world to see on National Geographic Wild
in “The Incredible Dr. Pol.”
I had the pleasure of spending time with Dr. Pol and his
better half, Diane Pol. The two are the perfect husband and
wife team. Becoming a TV star was not a part of the plan,
but when Dr. Pol’s son, Charles, pitched a show based
around their unique life in veterinary medicine in the
farmlands of Michigan, NatGeoWild was hooked. The
veterinarian superhero grew up on a dairy farm in the
Netherlands. In 1981, Dr. Pol and Diane opened their first
practice, specializing in large farm animals. Now with their
son and ten employees, they have treated over 20,000 furry
clients and counting. There is a reason why
‘incredible’ is in the title of the show. You
have to watch it to believe it every Saturday at 9PM on
NatGeoWild.
Your adventure on NatGeoWild started a few years ago.
Five years ago, Charles came with two friends and a
cameraman. They made a four minute DVD and NatGeo was
interested. The next year they came with a crew and made the
first four episodes. I never thought it would take off. I
thought, “who wants to watch me?” But there are a lot of
animal lovers out there and in one show, you see a lot of
animals.
Geoff Daniels (Exec VP of NatGeoWild) said that your hands
were ‘better than an ultrasound machine.’ Is it
time and experience that made you such an instinctual
veterinarian?
No, it is just practice. The more you do, the better you can
get. Ultrasounds are the best in the first month of
gestation during pregnancy. You go beyond that and yes, you
can tell they are pregnant, but the timing is off. I can
tell by the size of the uterus and anything else that’s in
there, how long they’ve been pregnant.
How long did it take you to master something like that?
When I was in college, we already were taught how to
pregnancy check by going to a slaughter house. There were
about 30 cows in a row and there were five students.
Everybody had to write down how long they thought the cow
was pregnant or what was going on, and if you didn’t have it
right you had to go back in and feel again. And in those
days, you came out with a green arm. (laughs) So you learn
quickly how to do it. With my first practice there were
three of us and we set up a health program with pregnancy
checks for all the family farms, and if you are inaccurate,
they complain because the cow has to have a dry period of
about two months. If the dry period is too short, it’s not
as bad as if it’s too long because the cow gets too fat. But
most of the time, one week either way is good enough, and
that is close enough that it works for the farmer.
What is a day in the life of Dr. Pol?
Every day is different. I’m at the clinic in the morning. We
do surgeries, such as neutering and then handle the sick
animals. After I go out on the road with Dr. Brenda and Dr.
Emily. At night, we get calls. You never know what’s
coming.
Human medicine is constantly evolving or changing, with new
meds on the market every year. What about animal
medicine?
Same thing. There is some medicine that we use in humans and
in cattle or animals. For small animals, we have more
choices than we have for food-producing animals because that
is very restricted. And people are always scared about the
residue of antibiotics, that is so, so small. The leftover
residue of antibiotics will definitely not cause any
resistance in humans. People complain that all that
antibiotic use in cattle has made resistant bacteria. No.
The resistant bacteria came from improper antibiotic use in
humans. If farmers send out an animal that has antibiotic in
them, they will get caught.
In your book, you talk about some unusual encounters. For
instance, you came across a man who was selling raccoons?
This guy was trapping raccoons in Michigan, and he was
selling them in Kentucky for people that wanted to hunt
coons. In Kentucky, they didn’t have any raccoons. Yes, the
coons are wild, but they don’t belong to you so you cannot
trap them and sell them. The Department of Natural Resources
brought them over for me to look them over, and they were
going to turn them loose somewhere again.
What’s your position on that [hunting]?
For me, if you want to hunt animals that’s fine. Fur is fine
with me, because there has to be checks and balances in
nature and we have disturbed it way too many times. Right
now I think because we do not hunt the coons, these coons
multiply like rabbits. There are people that eat coons and I
think they taste pretty good, I’ve never had one, but they
are an omnivore so the meat should taste good, but like I
said, there’s only so much he can try. But yes, the coons
carry diseases. Not as much as skunks, the skunks are very
well known for rabies, the coons for other diseases. The
possums can cause EPM, or equine protozoal
myelocenephalitis, in horses. If you see a possum in your
horse barn, be prepared that some of those horses may become
paralyzed and may actually have to be put down.
When your son made the four-minute DVD and pitched the story
for the show to National Geographic, were you hesitant at
all?
Well, you try to help your kids and I thought it would not
go anywhere, because I thought they’d take one look at the
thing and say, ‘What’s that old guy doing?’ Little did we
know.
People recognize and admire you all around the world. You’re
a veterinarian, father, husband, author… is there anything
else you want to add to the plate?
Racecar driver. (laughs) But, no, I’m just doing my work. I
love my work and if I can help people by just doing my work,
fantastic. That is one of the things I enjoy the most. I get
calls from all over the United States, Canada, and yes, we
have even gotten a call from South America. The biggest
advice I have is go to a veterinarian that you trust.
As Dr. Pol said to me, “You bring it, I’ll check
it.”
The show airs Saturdays at 9PM on NATGEOWILD:
channel.nationalgeographic.com/WILD
Dr. Pol’s first book is in stores now