The legal minimum is40lbs here in South Dakota. I haven't had much experience with anything shooting in the 32lb range, but I've played around with 45lb recurves and my fishing rig is set around that range, too. I think either of them have enough 'oomph' to penetrate sufficiently. I think you'd even be able to get a complete pass-through with them.

I guess if you're talking about a 32lb compound, you might be getting a little more stored energy than a recurve, which might make it sound enough to hunt with.

What I would do, though, is just try to work with him on it every day and gradually crank it up - maybe a pound every other day - until he can handle 40lbs or so. I'd feel a lot more comfortable with that. I think if you did it gradually and maybe didn't even tell him you were increasing the weight he probably won't even notice.