普左傑實習心得01：新北市採訪動保里長郭仁澤

新北市採訪動保里長郭仁澤

日期：2024年9月3日 

作者：普左傑 Isaac Platt Zolov

郭仁澤先生是新北市新店區小城里的里長。他很特別是在動保方面做社區服務。他幾年前成立新北市的「愛心認養小棧」的動物中繼站、已經幫助幾百隻小動物。在台灣動保方面，郭里長在2021年的時候也榮獲了台灣動物保護行政監督聯盟主辦頒發「友善動物傑出村里長獎」。我在9月3日禮拜三去新店參加他的採訪。

由於我在紐約已經跟一些本地市議員和州眾議員做義工和實習，我已經對於了解不同地方的當地政治很感興趣。所以，我去見郭先生之前特別期待。一來因為從來沒有認識台灣政府議員或社區里長，二來是因為我在美國也沒有認識一位對動保很感興趣的政府議員。

我9月3日禮拜三跟何宗勳（Ho,Tsung-hsun）秘書長和他的兩位公民記者學生一起去新店區採訪和錄影。這個經歷是很難得的機會！這是我第一次到新北市了解台灣的最基層地方官、也認識公民記者和他們做那麼專業的拍攝及錄影。

我那一天最喜歡的一部分就是看郭里長的日常生活的責任。雖然我們來主要的原因是採訪他，我們也看到他在新店區社區中的日常職責與互動。我們去找拍影片地點的時候看到郭里長和社區人員居民親切的打招呼、看他辦公室裡的不同社區資源、也甚至看到「愛心認養小棧」養的小貓咪！這真正讓我了解里長對社區的重要性，也讓我很期待有更多機會認識更多里長們的經歷和責任。

Interviewing New Taipei City’s Neighborhood Representative, Kuo Jen-Tse

Kuo Jen-Tse is the Neighborhood Representative of Xindian District in New Taipei City. Within his role, he has a particular focus on community service through animal protection. He established the  "Love Adoption Inn" (an animal “halfway house”) a few years ago, and has since helped hundreds of small animals. Mr Kuo also won the Outstanding Animal Protection Village Leader Award in 2021. On Wednesday, September 3rd, I followed Mr Ho and his two student reporters to visit Mr Kuo to film an interview. This was the first time I went to New Taipei City to get to know Taiwan’s local officials, as well as citizen journalists and their professional shooting and recording.

Ever since I had volunteered and interned with some local City Council members and state representatives in New York, I’ve become very interested in learning about local politics and civic engagement in different places. Therefore, I was very looking forward to it before going to see Mr. Kuo, as I had never met a Taiwanese local representative, and furthermore had never met a representative in the US who has done so much for animal rights. 

My favorite part of the day was watching Mr Kuo’s daily responsibilities. Although the main reason we came was to interview him, we also got to see his daily responsibilities and interactions in the Xindian District community. When we went to find the filming location, we saw Mr. Kuo greeting community residents cordially, got to see the different community resources in his office, and even got to meet the kittens raised by the "Love Adoption Inn"! This really helped me understand the importance of the neighborhood leaders to the community, and left me looking forward to learning more!