TV veterinarian savors his chance to share passion

PASADENA, Calif. — When Jan Pol was studying veterinary medicine in his native Netherlands, he couldn’t have imagined becoming a TV star.

Yet that’s where the 75-year-old finds himself these days as the subject of Nat Geo Wild’s popular “The Incredible Dr. Pol.”

Pol was ministering to all kinds of farm animals in rural Michigan when his son, Charles, came up with an idea.

“He went to film school in Miami and then went to Hollywood,” Pol said. “He said: ‘We’re here in Hollywood. Let’s make movies!’ But the writers’ strike was there, and filmmakers were a dime a dozen, and he was here for about eight to 10 years.

“Then he had a friend at Nickelodeon, and Charles said: ‘If you want to make a reality show, you should make one with my dad. He’s a veterinarian. He does large animals. He’s in the Midwest, and there’s been nothing like that on TV. And he’s a

Thereafter, Pol said, a cameraman and three others visited him, filming for a week and producing a short video to shop around.

Most of the networks turned it down, he said, but Nat Geo Wild, a new cable network at the time, decided to give it a go.

“They came out with a crew of 10, made four episodes and started broadcasting it,” he said, with a grin. “And the rest is history.”

Pol, who studied veterinary medicine at the University of Utrecht, thinks his education there gave him an advantage because the training was mostly hands-on.

He was 28 — older than his colleagues — when he finally graduated. His studies were interrupted when

his father developed cancer.

Pol, the youngest of six children and still at home, took a year off to help nurse his father through his final days.

“As a veterinarian, you can always get a job. ... You can go into education; you can go into so many things,” he said. “But I wanted to work with animals, period. I wanted to get my hands dirty.”

While still in high school, he became an exchange student, living for a time with a family in Michigan. His sister was living in Canada.

“My parents did come to Canada to visit my sister and visited my host parents in Michigan,” he said. “When I graduated from the University of Utrecht, I went back to the United States.”

Diane, his wife of more than 50 years, works with him in the clinic. Together they’ve treated 25,000 animals.

Although Pol does his best to save every creature, there are times when the best choice is to let them go, he said.

“I will not recommend chemo for animals,” he said, shaking his head. “To me, it is selfish. Animals are not afraid to die. And when they have cancer and it’s inoperable, let them go. You can never find the same animal again, but that doesn’t mean you can’t love another animal just as much."

The response he receives from viewers worldwide is gratifying, Pol said, and he appreciates that fans recognize him wherever he goes.

But he isn’t serving only animals, he said.

“I like to say, ‘We work on animals, but we help people.’”