By Sarah Netter for abcnews.go.com

The discovery of dozens of greyhound racing dogs tormented and left to starve to death after this fall’s racing season had ended has angered and appalled law enforcement and humane officials.

Thirty-two grossly emaciated dogs have been found dead at a kennel owned by Ebro dog trainer Ronald John Williams. Another five were found alive, three of them severely malnourished, and are being nursed back to health.

Food for the dogs was found rotting in a broken freezer and several of the animals were found with duct tape tightly wound around their jaws and necks, said Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock.

“We don’t know if it’s a combination of trying to speed up the process or to keep them from barking,” he said.

The sheriff was shocked at what his officers discovered.

“Thirty-two years I’ve been in law enforcement here locally and with the prosecutor’s office also … I’ve never seen animal cruelty cases like this one,” Haddock said.

“We hope he rots in prison,” said Mark Hess, the assistant manager at the Ebro Greyhound Park in Florida, where the dogs raced this year.

Williams was charged with 37 counts of felony animal cruelty and is suspected in an animal cruelty investigation in a neighboring county in which the remains of eight more dogs, believed to be greyhounds, were found dumped under a bridge a half-mile from his Ponce de Leon, Fla., home.

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