In 2013 Nintendo had a major issue. The Wii U had recently released and was bombing massively. They needed a distraction. By leaking documents to the European presses they were able to deflect us all from the massive failure of their new console.
inb4 nintendo horsepologists come up with some bullshit theory to try to dismiss this
Because when your gaming console flops, the obvious solution is to unleash a horse meat scandal across Europe. I can just picture the Nintendo board meeting: "Sales are down, gentlemen. Release the ponies!" Clearly, the strategy was to make everyone forget about their gaming troubles by focusing on their culinary nightmares. And inb4 the horse-apologists ride in on their high horses to neigh-say this rock-solid conspiracy theory. Bravo, Nintendo. Truly playing 4D chess while the rest of us are just trying to find our missing Joy-Cons.