SAN ANTONIO, Texas (CBS) Texas police are investigating possible animal cruelty charges against Wolfie Blackheart, a 23-year-old self-proclaimed "werewolf," who happily admits she severed the head of a missing dog, boiled it and then posted a photo of the ghoulish results on the Internet.

Photo: Wolfie Blackheart.

"I severed the head, boiled the head,” Wolfie told the San Antonio Express News. "People make the mistake of hacking the spine, which will fracture the skull."

She also told the paper, "You also have to put (the head) outside for the brains to leak out."

Sounds horrifying, but is it a crime? That depends on whether the dog was alive when it was decapitated.

Photo: "Rigsby" went missing Jan. 5. Did he wind up under Blackheart's knife?

Lisa Norwood, a spokesperson for Animal Care Services, says medical examiners should be able to determine if the dog was dead when its head was removed. It's provable "a number of different ways forensically," she said.

San Antonio police got a warrant to search Blackheart's home that she shares with her mother, according to the San Antonio Express-News. They found the walls were plastered with posters and smeared with a red substance her mom says is ketchup. On a high shelf, the paper says police found Blackheart's collection of animal heads, including the cleaned skulls of a coyote, ram and wild boar. She also had a collection of large knives and swords. Taxidermy is apparently a hobby and passion.

Police swabbed the walls and confiscated the heads, including the dog head.

For her part, Blackheart, whose born name is Sarah Rodriguez, says the dog was already dead when a friend brought it to her and claims she would never hurt a living dog.

"I would never kill a canine," she told the paper. "I am a canine."

Nevertheless, her current (Warning Graphic Content) MySpace profile picture shows the dog's severed head on a rainbow background.

The Internet has been swarming with anger at Blackheart, who says she's been flooded with prank calls and hate mail, but there is one person for whom the whole episode has hit hardest.

Blackheart's neighbor, Kathy Silva, says she believes the dog is hers. "My heart pretty much sank," Silva told the San Antonio Express-News, "because when I saw that picture, I said, 'That’s Rigsby.'"

Rigsby, originally a stray adopted by the Silva family, has been missing since Jan. 5.

“He was the sweetest dog ever," she said.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Should Blackheart be punished or, if the dog was already dead, was she within her rights?