With pet care becoming one of the fastest growing industries around, it makes sense that television networks are catching on and offering many new television shows about pets and veterinary care. After the huge success of the “Dog Whisperer,” Caesar Milan, there are many others hoping to capitalize on the love we all have for our pets. However, most professionals in the veterinary industry are outraged about the quality of some of the shows popping up.

Being a huge animal lover myself, of course I love to watch these types of shows. But I also have a professional interest and so really enjoy seeing the different types of cases that occur and following the treatment plans the doctors put in place. It feels really cool to be able to tell my husband that I’ve helped with a surgery like that one, or to be able to predict what is wrong with the animal because of my own experience.

But because of this experience and knowledge, sometimes I end up really disliking some of the things I see on these shows. And I’m not the only one. Let’s take for example one of the most popular shows about a veterinarian there is; ‘The Incredible Dr. Pol.’ This show airs on Animal Planet and follows a Michigan vet in his 70’s as he treats both farm and small animals. I have been horrified on numerous occasions by some of the practices I have seen on this show, such as; almost no sterile technique for surgery, no separate operating room, no visible pain control on major surgeries, no inhaled gas anesthetic or even a breathing tube, no apparent vital sign monitoring, no apparent surgical aftercare or monitoring… and the list goes on. In fact, some of the things I have listed are not up to the standards required by the Michigan Veterinary Medical Association. I haven’t seen one single surgery on his show yet be provided with basic surgical necessities that would meet those standards.

Dr. Pol has had 2 official complaints resulting in investigations of his practices. The first one resulted in a charge of negligence (failing to provide the minimum standard of care) and he was fined, placed on probation, and required to take further education courses. The second, charges of both negligence and incompetence, ended in the same result but were later overturned in a court of appeal because the animal survived and the owners were happy with his services. Dr. Pol argues that he will “provide all the necessary treatments required by state law while respecting the financial situations in his rural community.” While I understand financial restrictions of owners means that care provided must sometimes be kept to the minimum necessary, but a dog recovering from surgery should at least get some warm blankets. That doesn’t cost Dr. Pol a cent to provide.

There are so many fantastic shows about veterinarians that we don’t need a show like that. The ones that I have seen and are great actually do provide proper standards of care to their patients. Some of them are; Dr K’s Exotic Animal ER, Dr. Oakley, Yukon Vet, and Vet School (all on Nat Geo Wild), as well as ER Vets on CMT. If you want to see the difference in the care provided, watch a surgery performed on a dog on both The Incredible Dr. Pol and Dr. K’s Exotic Animal ER. I think it will be immediately apparent that you would prefer any dog to be in Dr. K’s hands and veterinary hospital!

There may be more shows that I haven’t seen that also provide excellent patient care so please leave a comment if there is one you think I should check out. I hope I have made you think a bit about the shows that are out there and the type of care you should be looking for when your own pet needs to see a veterinarian. Good medicine and care can still be provided at lower costs without having to put the animal’s safety at risk.

There are a lot of shows about training and animal behaviour as well, but I will tackle those shows in my next post. What do you think about this article? Have you seen any of these shows and what did you think of them?