HE IS 81, but retirement is still not in sight. He is being kicked, bitten, scratched or spat on every day, but that comes with the territory, says doctor Jan-Harm Pol. He is by far America’s most beloved veterinarian. His TV show, The Incredible Dr. Pol, just ended its 24th and final season this summer. It has been broadcast in over a hundred countries.
Pol is a farmer’s son from the Dutch province of Drenthe, born in Wateren on the Friesland border, near a hamlet called Oude Willem. While studying veterinary medicine in Utrecht, he went to Michigan on a student exchange. Jan met Diane, fell in love, and they got married. Returned to Holland so that he could graduate, but then back again to Michigan, now for good. They didn’t have children, they took them. The Pols adopted two daughters and a son, Charles, the show’s creator and producer.
THE INCREDIBLE Dr. Pol owes its success to its friendly environment: a small town in the heart of Michigan, cold winters, farm families with livestock, and in the wider area other households with all kinds of pets. Jan Pol makes no effort to hide his Dutch accent, which counts as a plus, and he doesn’t overcharge his customers. His methods are old-school: when a cow has to calve and the uterus is twisted, he takes off his sweater and shirt, bares his entire torso, and sticks his arm and part of his shoulder into the cow until he has fixed the problem.
His practice has grown over the years to 25,000 clients, not counting the animal patients themselves, and without exception their reactions are full of praise. When there were complaints, they came from TV viewers who felt that the doctor should disinfect himself and the animals a little more. Or they decided long distance that the chosen treatment showed incompetence. One Monday morning quarterback, himself a veterinarian, said he could tell from his armchair that doctor Pol misdiagnosed a dog. Now and then this led to lawsuits, and to a disciplinary board sentencing the doctor to one day’s probation. But then he would appeal, and his lawyer won it for him.
SINCE THEN, new episodes of the show came with a warning at the start stating that viewers don’t get to see the entire treatment, and that no one should try at home what Dr. Pol does in front of the camera. That was a result of those charges, but for National Geographic and channel majority shareholder Disney, they were never reason to end the show. In each disputed case, the animal owners, Jan Pol’s customers, had provided affidavits saying that they were very satisfied with the doctor’s treatment.
How much longer will he himself still go on? Doctor Pol does not talk about quitting. As long as in and around Weidman, Michigan there’s no other doctor for horses, cows, sheep, goats, pigs, cats, dogs, chickens, parrots, snakes, rabbits, lizards, alpacas, emu, pigeons, guinea pigs, and the occasional reindeer, Jan from Drenthe will stay around.
