Ethical Policy

Our Animal Skins are all Ethically Sourced

We get asked a lot of questions about the morality of selling animal skins. Also how the animals are cared for and slaughtered.  The products we sell are only available because of the Meat Industry. All our Hides are simply a Bi Product of this industry as with all Leather Goods such as Shoes, boots, handbags, Jackets, belts and far too many other products that are all sourced as a Bi-Product of the meat Industry.

We have guarantees from all of our suppliers that the hides we sell come from ethically sourced high quality certificated farms. All the animals live good lives and have plenty of space to live organically. Most of the animals are bred specifically for the meat industry. Apart from the African Antelope, Springbok, Blesbok and Impala. There are so many Antelope in Africa, they have to be culled to keep their numbers under control.

Reindeer have been bred and herded for centuries by several Arctic and Subarctic people including the Sami and the Nenets. They earn their living selling the meat to the Scandinavian markets that use it in a similar way to how we use pork, beef or lamb, i.e.  meatballs, Sausages, Sautéed reindeer etc. Reindeer meat is very tender and lean. It can be prepared fresh, but also dried, salted, hot- and cold-smoked.  Reindeer antler is powdered and sold as an aphrodisiac, nutritional or medicinal supplement to Asian markets.  Reindeer are not a domesticated animal, they generally roam free on pasture grounds and herds are keenly tended by the farmers.

All the Animals are slaughtered in a human way. Most countries have adopted the principle of a two-stage process. This is to ensure a rapid death with minimal suffering. The first stage of the process, is where the animal is stunned, this renders it unconscious, but not necessarily dead. The second stage, the animal is killed. All of the abattoirs that the hides are sourced from abide by their particulars countries licensing laws and are certificated and checked by a governing body to make sure all the processes used are humane.

We hope you find the information provided helpful.

HideRugs would never knowingly sell a product that had been miss-treated in any way and would not sell any hides unless they were simply a waste product that would only be discarded unless we sold them for decorative purposes.

Many ancient tribes have been using animal skins for centuries & only kill to survive. They were extremely resourceful and understood the process of upcycling. Something that today we are starting to appreciate more and more. As we have always been such a throwaway society we really should be looking at some of the traditional methods used by tribes hundreds of years ago, they really knew what the word resourceful meant.