Before we begin, for dog treat novices, let it be known that bully sticks are one of the most sort after dog treats on the planet. And because they are from the animal’s penis, they are relatively rare, and hence while the greatest longest 100% meat chew, this uniqueness adds to their price.
Note that bully sticks can also come from other animals like goats and pigs, however those sticks tend to be substantially smaller, even though they too are the hardest full meat of each of those animals.
Let’s now look at how they came to be and where their name came from.
Bully sticks were created as a name or euphonism to disguise the origin as the bull’s penis. That said the term bully has been also extended to all other animal penises. That is why you can buy lambs bully stick and pork bully sticks etc.
Bully just now seems to reflect that they are as tough as the ‘idea’ of a bull.
While farmers would feed all meat that wasn’t easily sold at market, to their dogs, it wasn’t until very recently in the 20th century that dog treat manufacturers figured that they had the potential to sell these parts well, if they changed the name.
Bully sticks might have been used in Asian cultures for dogs, but they are still very prized in some of these regions for their mystical male virality properties. It is this practice that helps drive up the prices for bully sticks used in the west, dog treats market.
The reason that bully sticks are still so prized is the connotation of a bull part making a dog as strong as a bull, as well as it being the hardest single ingredient meat treat, much harder than most jerkies. This is because being single ingredient, and just the organ dried, it has muscle striations down the length of the meat keeping it whole when chewed upon.
Jerkies that are 100% meat are also great, but the practice of cutting the meats thin so that most dogs can eat them, and they can be dried evenly, means that most jerkies don’t have a very long chew time. In the case of beef jerky, many of these treats are not actual muscle meat (steak) – but instead the throat of the cow. While this means that they also remain solid when the tube is cut long ways, they are also often very thin slices and don’t have as much quality as an actual body meat slice.
Why bully sticks are also called PIZZLE
The secret is out. Bully sticks are typically bull or other cattle penises, and they are also called pizzle dog treats.
While pizzle obviously has a closer phonetic connection to penis, the words bully stick visually seem to be more obvious as to the treat’s origin. It appears that it’s used as another not so clever disguise.
Similar to bully sticks, the term “pizzle treats” refers to dog chews made from the pizzle (penis) of animals, typically bulls or other cattle. While less commonly used than “bully sticks,” the term “pizzle treats” has gained traction among pet owners and manufacturers looking to provide natural, single-ingredient options for dogs.
The word pizzle itself has its origins back to the early 16th century. It was used as an English term derived from “Low German pesel or Flemish Dutch pezel “. Curiously while pizzle was developed in the UK, its term is mostly used with bully sticks in Australia and NZ.
So unless you buy bully sticks from the oceanic region, you mightn’t even be aware that the term pizzle exists.
Why use bully sticks at all?
We are in a special place to inform you, since we have sold quite a few of this stock. At different times of the year, and depending on the economy, sales can wildly fluctuate. Because of their relatively high price, they could be considered a luxury item. Even though, all they are is a piece of cow meat.
Unexpectantly of all the beef treats, bully sticks from our country (Australia) are one of the hottest export items. Seems they like our clean regulated reputation. Not only do we get a lot of enquiries from individuals, but also would be importers wanting to stock our sticks.
In the west, its mainly about their function. To have a long-lasting treat, that isn’t a bone, and so potentially provides a safer eating option (for owners of dogs who don’t carefully chew), the bully stick hits the sweet spot of hardness and chewing time.
The chewing time not only has to do with the stick being a single long piece of meat, or its hardness, its about its combined properties making it hard to eat the stick in any other way than start from one end and chew to the other.
For instance, dogs might start in the middle of a bone (to get the marrow) or chew one end to the other. They can start in any position to a meat jerky But for the pizzle stick they soon realise that they cant easily break it in half, so they have to slobber on one end of the stick, and slowly chew off the pieces that soften with their saliva. So a wide stick that is as long as possible will definitely last the longest time.
SUMMARY
Beef or any other animal’s penises are called bully sticks in deference to their origin as mostly a bulls penis. The term bully softens the idea of what the treat is made of.
The word pizzle goes back in history well before the term bully stick was invented, but now doesn’t seem as popular term globally as bully sticks.
Originally bully sticks might have just been given to a dog like offal on a farm, raw and just a piece that the family would not eat. In the western world sometime in the middle 20th century marketers realised that cooking a wide stick, made it much harder and so even braided them or did anything to enable marketing them as the longest lasting 100% natural full meat treat.
