The one sentence version
"The alpacas are not killed for it. They are herded for fibre and for meat, and the fur comes from animals that died of cold, age or disease at four thousand metres."
### Guide ###
Are alpacas killed for their fur? Where ours comes from
No. Alpacas are not killed for their fur, and there is no fur farming anywhere in our chain. The herds of the Andes are kept for their fibre and for meat, and they have been for centuries. The pelts we work with come from animals that had already died, which at four thousand metres happens to a great many of them.
### Where it comes from ###
The whole answer, not the comfortable half
A pelt comes from an animal that is dead. There is no version of this page that avoids that sentence, so here it is at the top.
What matters is why the animal died, and the answer is that it died of the things that kill animals on the altiplano. Cold. Age. Disease. The ordinary attrition of a herd living at four thousand metres, where a hard season takes a share of the animals and always has.
Some of them are young. The grade the trade calls Baby Alpaca, which is finer than the fur of a grown animal, is the fur of young animals, and they are young because they did not get older. We would rather write that down than let the word "baby" do quiet work in a product name.
No animal is raised or killed for toy production. The herds are not run for us and they would exist in exactly the same numbers if we had never placed an order. We buy what the season gives, and when a season gives less of a colour, we have less of that colour. That is the whole reason this site says which shades are scarce instead of promising all of them.
Nothing about that changes with the size of the order. Fifty pieces or five thousand, the herds are the herds.
### Two materials ###
Shearing and pelts are not the same trade
Most of the alpaca in the world comes off a living animal once a year. That is the fibre in a jumper, and it is not what a fur toy is made of.
An alpaca is sheared annually, and it needs to be: a fleece that is never taken off keeps growing, and an animal carrying years of it suffers for it in the heat and is at risk of more besides. Shearing is husbandry, not extraction, and the fibre it produces is the great majority of the alpaca trade.
A pelt is the other thing entirely. It is the skin with the fibre still attached, and it can only come from an animal that has died. That is what a fur rug is, and that is what our pieces are cut from, because keeping the fibre on the skin is what makes a fur toy look like the animal rather than like a fabric.
So when somebody asks whether alpacas are harmed for their fur, two honest answers are needed and they are not the same. For fibre: no, the animal is sheared and walks away. For fur: the animal was already dead, and the alternative to using the pelt is burning it.
### In writing ###
How the fur reaches the workshop
Through the sort, which is where pelts from many small holdings are graded by colour and by fineness.
That is the trade, and it is how a workshop in Lima can hold ten shades of one size at once when no single holding in the Andes has ten shades of anything. The sorting is done by people who have done it for a long time, and the grade a pelt comes out with is what decides which piece it becomes.
We will tell you what we buy, from whom and on what terms, in writing, for your order. A sourcing statement travels with every shipment, so the answer on this page is on paper with your goods rather than only on a website.
### For shops ###
What to say when a customer asks
They will ask, and the answer that works is the plain one. A shop that repeats a marketing phrase gets a second question; a shop that explains gets a sale.
If they ask about the young ones
Say it straight: the finest grade is the fur of animals that died young. It is the answer we give and it is better heard from you than found out afterwards.
In writing, with the order
A sourcing statement travels with every order, so the words above are on paper with your shipment rather than only on a website. Ordering and terms.
Questions, meet Answers
No. There is no fur farming anywhere in our chain and no animal is raised or killed for toy production. The herds of the Andes are kept for fibre and for meat, and the pelts we work with come from animals that had already died of cold, of age or of disease at four thousand metres.
Shearing is husbandry rather than extraction. An alpaca is sheared once a year and needs to be: a fleece that is never taken off keeps growing, and an animal carrying years of it suffers in the heat. The animal is sheared and walks away. That fibre is what a jumper is made of, and it is not what a fur toy is made of.
Fleece comes off a living animal at shearing. Fur is the pelt, the skin with the fibre still attached, and it can only come from an animal that has died. A fur rug and a fur toy are pelts; a knitted garment is fleece.
Yes, and we would rather write that down than let the word do quiet work in a product name. It is finer than the fur of a grown animal because the animal was young, and it was young because it did not get older.
Through the sort, where pelts from many small holdings are graded by colour and by fineness by people who have done it for a long time. That grade is what decides which piece a pelt becomes, and it is how a workshop in Lima can hold ten shades of one size at once. A sourcing statement travels with every order, so what we buy and on what terms is on paper with your shipment.
### Real alpaca fur · from 50 pieces ###
Build the mix. The quotation comes back within 24 hours.