Montpelier — A Vermont legislative committee has postponed a decision on a proposal to lengthen the otter trapping season. This postponement, voted on last week, adds another chapter to a long and vigorous public debate.

“It’s a highly contentious issue,” said Brenna Galdenzi, president and founder of animal advocacy group Protect Our Wildlife. In a phone interview following the hearing, she said, “Whenever there’s an issue of trapping, it really gets people active and speaking out. It really gets people going.”

That has been the case in the debate over P-1704, a proposal now before the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules.

P-1704 grew out of a petition submitted to the Fish and Wildlife Board in October 2015 that requested six modifications to Vermont’s trapping regulations. In a year and a half, Vermonters on both sides have flocked to public meetings, barraged state officials with emails, and submitted opposing petitions.

“We’ve received hundreds and hundreds of emails,” Catherine Gjessing, general counsel for the state Fish and Wildlife Department, said in a phone interview. The department provides staffing and scientific recommendations to the Fish and Wildlife Board when it considers changing hunting, fishing or trapping regulations.

Kimberly Royar, a state furbearer biologist, said that public sentiment toward trapping sometimes focuses on sympathy with individual animals at the expense of considering how best to manage an entire species.

LCAR will resume discussion on whether to extend otter season and approve P-1704’s other provision at its meeting on July 20.