Charles Pol discusses ‘The Incredible Dr Pol’, the value of 4-H, saving a calf
As another season of The Incredible Dr. Pol rolls along, Charles Pol, Jan’s son, spoke with Monsters and Critics about the show, the recent episode and how starting out in 4-H helped him.
“It taught you responsibility and chores and taking care of animals and empathy and circle of life. I just think it’s an invaluable experience for kids. Having said that, the number of people have decreased. We have seen kids become less interested in that or have less opportunity to do it.
“So I think that it’s one of those things where we really are big supporters and believers in 4-H but, and it’s a nationwide organization. People don’t really realize, its a part of the department of agriculture.”
The exclusive interview takes fans behind the scenes, a recent procedure involving a canary as Charles talks about working with the cattle on the show.
“The difference between getting that calf out alive and having a dead calf can be a matter of minutes in some circumstances. Actually, you can pull a calf that’s alive like that but if it was too long without oxygen it can develop brain damage and die anyway. We’ve seen that happen where we got them out alive but not in time and they didn’t survive. It’s critical to get them out as soon as possible.”
For over a decade National Geographic has taken fans to the famous Michigan vet’s practice. Check out the full interview with Charles HERE
The episode (Jan. 20) involves putting down a horse and Charles explains how hard that is: “I think that that was the kind of situation where you’re not prepared is always the hardest for the client. They’re not mentally prepared and they’re thinking, ‘oh, this is maybe bad but the doctor’s coming and they’re going to be able to fix this.’
“But sometimes we can’t. Doctors only are human and only can do what they can do and at the end of the day, that’s just inevitable. It’s a part of this job. Every day we see animals that die. There are a lot of kids who are interested in veterinary medicine from the show and what future veterinarians have to consider is [that] they have to confront death on a daily basis. Because they’re not going to be able to save them all.”
