Short answer: nobody raises a sheep for its skin. The sheep is raised for meat. The skin comes off afterwards, and if nobody buys it, it goes in a shredder and then into landfill. That last part is the bit most people have never been told, and it changes the whole question of whether a sheepskin rug is a responsible thing to own.
The skin follows the meat, never the other way round
The money in a sheep is in lamb and mutton. That is what the farmer is paid for and what the processor sells. Everything that comes off the carcass afterwards has a name in the trade: the drop, or the fifth quarter. Hides and skins are the most valuable part of that drop, and they are still small change next to the meat itself.
That ordering is not a marketing line, it is arithmetic. You cannot raise, feed, transport and process a sheep on the price of one skin. When skin prices are strong the skin pays for a small slice of the processing cost. When they are weak, it becomes a bill. The animal was going to be raised either way.
What actually happens to the skins nobody buys
Here is where it gets uncomfortable. In the UK, only about 1% of sheepskins are used for anything. More than 15 million are thrown away every year.
Fifteen years ago a British abattoir could sell a sheepskin for £6 to £8. By early 2026 it was paying roughly £1.60 per skin to have them taken away, and some plants had bought their own shredders so they could landfill the skins in-house rather than keep paying. Cow hides went the same direction, from £45-50 down to £4-5. Those figures come from the Sustainable Food Trust in February 2026.
Australia went through the same collapse and has only just come out of it. A year ago producers there were paying to have skins hauled away and the skins were being buried. By June 2026 a good merino skin was worth A$30 to A$40 again and crossbred skins up to A$15, purely because buyers came back to the market. Over 90% of Australian skins go to China for processing.
So the sustainability question is not really the one people expect. Using the skin is not the waste. Shredding it is.
By-product, residual product, or co-product?
You will see all three terms, and they are not interchangeable.
- By-product is the normal American English term, and it is the right one here. It means something that comes out of a process incidentally, while the process is really making something else.
- Residual product means the same thing and is common in Europe. It is close to the Danish restprodukt, which is the word our own head office in Denmark would use.
- Co-product is different. That is when a business deliberately produces two things and needs both to make the economics work. Sheepskin is not that. If every tannery on earth shut down tomorrow, the same number of sheep would be raised for meat next year.
Are sheep killed for their skins?
No, and the price history above is the plainest evidence you will find. An industry that spends years paying to bury its skins is not an industry that is killing animals to get them.
It is also worth being clear about what a sheepskin is. It is a hide with the hair still on it, which means it cannot be taken from a living animal. Every genuine sheepskin, from any seller anywhere, comes from an animal that was already processed for meat. There is no other way for one to exist.
The alternative is plastic
Synthetic sheepskin is polyester, and polyester is oil. It sheds microplastic fibres every time it is vacuumed or washed, it mats down within a season or two of real use, and at the end of its short life it goes into the ground without breaking down. Replacing it means pulling more oil out of the ground.
A genuine sheepskin has already been produced, in the most literal sense. Buying one does not cause another sheep to be raised. It moves a skin from the waste stream into your living room for the next fifteen or twenty years.
Where ours come from, and how they are checked
Our collections are built on materials that are by-products of the meat industry. That has been the basis of the range since the beginning, and it is why we can be specific about sourcing rather than vague about it.
Every supplier has to complete an approval programme before they can sell to us. We require certificates and physical inspection of the product both in the country of origin and in Denmark, and every non-EU supplier is re-inspected each year after approval, not just once at the start. Certificates held across the range include OEKO-TEX, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, BLC Reach and WRAP, with the originals kept at our head office in Denmark.
The skins themselves have been tested by TÜV SÜD, the German testing and certification body. They came back free of banned aromatic amines, chlorinated phenols, formaldehyde, chromium 6, short-chain chlorinated paraffins, extractable heavy metals and perfluorinated compounds. They were also tested for ignitability and for colour fastness to perspiration, artificial light and rubbing. You can read the detail in our note on certified sheepskin and in how we approach sustainability and animal welfare.
Longevity is the part that actually counts
A skin that gets a shake outdoors, an occasional brush and a careful hand wash when it needs one will stay in use for decades. That is where the environmental case is really won. One rug that lasts twenty years beats five synthetic ones bought and binned over the same stretch, and it is not close.
If you want the method we recommend, it is written up in our guide to cleaning a sheepskin rug at home. Cool water, no heat, no wringing.
The short version
- Sheep are raised for meat. The skin is what is left over afterwards.
- In the UK roughly 99% of those skins are discarded, over 15 million a year.
- Processors have at times paid to have skins destroyed, which is the opposite of a skin trade driving slaughter.
- The synthetic alternative is oil-based, sheds microplastics, and wears out fast.
- Using a skin, and then keeping it for twenty years, is the version of this with the least waste in it.
If you are looking for one, our full range of genuine sheepskin rugs is here, along with our cowhides, which reach us the same way.
Sources: Sustainable Food Trust, February 2026; ABC News Rural, June 2026; USDA Economic Research Service on meat by-products.
