She did know that poor Alex did not get anything (not love, not treats, not even shoulder time or looking out a window) without having to work for it. She made it that way because she needed him to work at his fullest so she could prove her theory and get more and more grants. He was her bread and butter and make no mistake about this. This interview disappeared from all media once he died but she was once asked if she regarded Alex as her pet and she replied that he was nothing but an animal she experimented on. But, when he died and the whole world lamented his passing, the interview disappeared and she promptly put out a book saying how much she loved him (surprise - surprise!). I met the woman years and years ago when she was invited to give a chat for a Manhattan bird club I belonged to and she is the most mercenary and self-centered individual!
Poor Alex lived in a lab all his life, surrounded by stainless steel with not a single tree branch to peel and chew, a toy meant just for entertainment or a window he could look out from. He was all alone. Dr. P traveled constantly fundraising her research, often two weeks at a time, coming back for a few days and taking off again and she was the only constant in his life. He had no bird or human companion of its own for the simple reason that this would have been a distraction from his constant training and testing. He did not even have the same assistants testing him all the time, they had to be switched constantly so he would not bond with any of them and/or learn to 'read' subliminal clues from them that would negate his figuring things out on its own. Again, he was Avian Learning EXperiment -even his name was given with his role in mind.
The poor thing is better off dead than living in a sterile hell the way he lived all his life.